Hogwarts: The Advent of the Capturing God
by Respawn.ftw
Summary: Hell has a new assignment for Haqua, Elsea and Keima: investigate a yet unexplored portion of Great Britain. Unbeknownst to New Hell, the goddesses decide to tag along. Set after the goddess arc, though the chief has not been 'erased' and during book 4 of the Harry Potter Series. Major spoilers for anyone who only watched the anime or hasn't caught up with the manga.
1. Flag 1: Letters

Personally, I'm not really fond of this chapter, but I wanted each goddess to have a small scene at least, so this is how i ended up doing it. Kinda short, but this is really just the exposition and setup stuff, (tedious i say, but necessary). As many of you may have figure out by now, I am terribly bad at finishing what I start. Despite my two other fics that appear to be currently stuck in limbo, I have gone and created yet another one. Forgive me for that. (And watch for an update to my other stories, I promise to have something up at some point soon)

* * *

Chapter 1: Letters

"K-kami-nii-samaaaaaa!" A young, raven haired girl barged into Katsuragi Keima's room, tripping over the piles of unfinished games and promptly faceplanting hard onto the floor. The two letters she had previously been holding fluttered to the ground, unheeded by the other occupant of the room.

Pushing his glasses up, and barely shifting his gaze from the rather impressive array of monitors, Keima scolded the girl,  
"Elsea! how many times do I have to tell you not to just burst in here! Now be quiet, I'm close to advancing Fuuka-chan's path!"  
He indicated wildly to the bottom-right screen.

Elsea picked herself up off of the floor, glancing at the screen; a teal-haired, pale girl was offering the player a homemade lunch. Apparently it wasn't as appetizing as it looked.  
'How is it?' the girl on the screen questioned nervously.  
"HA! the obvious answer is that it's delicious!" the brunette gamer scrolled over the appropriate response, and was rewarded with a new message:  
The Fuuka Yamagishi social link has reached level 4!

Averting her eyes from the screen, Elsea grasped the fallen letters, remembering why she had come up in the first place.  
"Kami-nii-sama, I got this really weird letter, and so did you!"  
"Don't...care...about...the real.."  
Keima's movements became even faster, as if trying to stave off the encroachment of the real into his gaming paradise. The entire time he spoke, not once did his eyes flicker from the screen. However, his nuisance of a partner just would not leave him alone. Pouting and tugging on his sleeve, it would seem that Elsea absolutely would not leave until he humor her. Finally, Keima had had enough.  
"Fine! I'll read the letter if you get out when I'm done!"

Sighing in irritation at her happy nod, he grabbed his letter out of her hand, raising an eyebrow at the strange red seal and fancy script. Opening the letter, Keima immediately noted the strange material and the even stranger method of address. Whoever had sent this had his location down to the gaming chair in his room! Slightly suspicious, though he couldn't imagine _himself_ of all people having stalkers. He was known as the game otaku, after all. Pushing that particular mystery out of his mind, Keima tore open the envelope, extracting a litter written in fancy cursive print:

_Dear Mr. Katsuragi,_  
_We at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have been requested to oversee a year of your education. Although this is a highly unusual request, and at a strange time, no less, Hogwarts is dedicated to ensuring students have an opportunity to learn the craft, should they so desire. So, on behalf of the entirety of the Hogwarts staff, I would like to invite you to join Hogwarts as a study abroad student for a single year, as per the request of your benefactor..._

* * *

Next door, a similar scene was taking place, where a black haired girl sporting two braided loops read the letter aloud to her reflection which, surprisingly, spoke back.

_...Coincidentally, it has come to our attention that there are a number of magical signatures in close proximity of you, most of which seem to have very little to no schooling in the arcane arts. We at Hogwarts regret seeing such potential squandered..._

Tenri and her reflection, Diana, glanced dubiously at each other.

* * *

On the roof of Maejima high, the lone member of the astrology club scanned a strange letter that had been left on the seat of her chair:

_...As such, we have taken the initiative to invite them to Hogwarts as well, in hopes of both easing the transition and fostering said persons latent magical power..._

At that point, Tsukiyo noticed the hideous, brown owl perched upon her chair, 'eeped' then had Vulcan throw several objects as it beat a hasty retreat.

* * *

Narusawa TV:  
_….As you may have already realized, this situation is highly unusual, especially since you have probably had very little to no interaction with magic..._

Kanon Nakagawa then shrieked, just then noticing the ugly owl that was glaring at her expectantly. Throwing one of her sparking tasers at it, Kanon rushed back into the studio.

* * *

Hiding from her mother who was currently ranting about how a girl should act more 'elegant' and 'womanly', Yui Goidi was surprised to have a letter, addressed to her no less, drop into her lap:

_...The headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, has taken it upon himself to personally meet you and the other potential students in hopes of making the transition as smooth as possible..._

* * *

At Maejima library, a dark haired librarian wearing two small bows on the sides of her head pored over a parchment, while a diminutive purple haired child peered over her shoulder.

_...This meeting shall take place precisely one month prior to the start of term. Please be at the Katsuragi residence on August 1st at 12 in the afternoon..._

At the mention of 'Katsuragi residence,' Shiori Shiomiya let out a quiet squeal and turned a bright red while the goddess, Minerva, fell, toppling the books she had been using to peer over her hosts' shoulder. Neither noticed the battered owl crawling out from under the pile of books.

* * *

Maejima track:

_…There, you shall then be taken to purchase the necessary school supplies and take remedial classes. Term begins on September 1. A response to this letter is not necessary, simply attend the aformentioned meeting._

_Yours Sincerely,_  
_Minerva McGonagall_  
_Deputy Headmistress_

The final recipient, a violet-haired girl in a tracksuit, finished reading the letter.  
'_Well, no harm in looking into it, right?' _Ayumi Takahara mused.  
_'Correct, after all, it _is_ an opportunity to visit _his _house.' _Her goddess, Mercury, teasingly affirmed.

* * *

"Elsea, dear, you have a friend for you at the door!"  
A woman's voice called out from downstairs.  
"Coming mother!"  
The exuberant demon-girl rushed out the room and down the stairs. At the sound of a 'thud', Keima assumed his ditz of a sister had fallen down the last two stairs again. Moments later, the sound of voices came from downstairs; Keima really hoped that the visitor would occupy his sister for a good amount of time.

Scanning the letter again, the brunette ground his teeth in irritation. He had already had his gaming time cut into quite badly because of Elsea's spirit hunting. If he went off to some strange school in England, God only knew how much time he would have left to game. The very idea was traumatizing. As he had told Elsea so many times before, his only obligation was to capture those runaway spirits that appeared every now and again, and that was only to prevent him from losing his head. Quite literally in fact, as the purple choker around his throat would liberate his head from his body, should he shirk his duties.  
"There is absolutely no way in hell I am going to do something this idiotic" Keima announced to himself.

"I'm afraid you have no choice Katsuragi."  
A teen girl with long, purple hair, grimly noted as she walked into Keima's room, calmly dancing around the precarious piles of games. Like Elsea-currently tailing behind her- his girl  
also wore a skull hairpin and a garment that appeared to float around her, though hers was purple as opposed to elsea's pink.

"What exactly do you mean by 'no choice', Haqua?" The brunette's eyes narrowed at this new intruder in his sanctuary. This was a place of _peace_dammit, so why where there so many interlopers intruding on his personal space? It wasn't fair.

"Exactly what I mean. This is a direct order from chief Docrow Skull. You, Elsie and I are required to undertake this mission."  
The now identified Haqua responded smoothly, though her cheeks did tint slightly red when he spoke her name.

Still confused, and more than a littles put off, Keima questioned why.

"Well, as the chief put it.."  
Haqua placed a hand to her chin, recalling the conversation she had had with the chief:

_"So why do I have to take care of runaway spirits in England? Isn't that the jurisdiction of the western division?"_  
_The chief, a short, hooded figure turned her skull face up to glance at her subordinate_  
_"Well yes, however, the European branch of the runaway spirit squad is extremely hesitant to act. Technically, this particular area of Great Britain does not fall under the jurisdiction of any of the squads."_  
_"Then what happens to the loose souls?"_  
_"We don't know. That's the problem." the small skull face added gravely "though quite a number of spirits manage to escape, very few of them actually manifest. It is quite worrisome, as the squad does not know what happens to these spirits."_  
_"So you want us to investigate this?" the purple haired demon concluded._  
_"Naturally." Docrow sighed, "unfortunately, none of the other divisions want anything to do with this; they are afraid of getting involved with things that may well be out of their control"_  
_"So If no one wants to touch this, why the japanese branch?"_  
_"My, my, it's just like you to be so inquisitive, Haqua" the small demon laughed "and to answer your question, it is because the Japanese branch's capture rate is among the highest in the world, so we were delegated to handle the task."_  
_"That's it?"_  
_"Well to be honest, this is also to boost the Japanese Division's reputation. The 'Vintage Fiasco' as its now being called has lowered the other division's view of us," said the chief, shaking her head sadly._  
_Still looking doubtful, Haqua was about to voice another protest before being swiftly cut off by the chief._  
_"Did I mention that Else and her buddy will be accompanying you?" The miniature chief piped up._  
_"Wha-?"_  
_"Its only natural, after all, Elsea's capture rates are the highest in Japan." Skull continued conversationally._  
_"Very well, I have no problem with this arrangement." In her mind, Haqua crowed, _'Keima-kun is coming as well!'  
_"I didn't think you would" the chief chuckled "Now off with you! go do whatever it is you young people do!"_

"And that's about the gist of it" Haqua surmised, observing Keima's annoyed and Elsea's ecstatic face.  
"Did the chief really say that about me? did she? did she!?"  
"Elsie shut up for a bit," turning to Haqua, "and what happens if we refuse?"  
"The collar cuts your heads off." Haqua stated simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world..  
"I thought as much" Keima sighed, fingering the purple choker around his neck.  
Glancing at the calendar, "July 24th, huh? I suppose I should pack. Both of you get out, and Elsea, go explain to mother and show her the letters."  
Obediently, the two demons left the room.  
"Well," Keima muttered to himself "if I am going to be there for a year, I'm going to have to bring everything."  
His multiple monitors and mountain of games loomed silently over him.

"…Well maybe I'll finish a couple more games first."

* * *

Omake:  
"Headmaster, was it really necessary to have a single owl distribute all those letters?"  
"Of course, my dear Minerva, all of the students were quite close by each other after all, and all the other owls are out on errands."  
"Still, that owl _is_ rather old and frail and the flight to Japan is not a short one, I assure you..."  
"Ah look, he has returned"  
The old headmaster cut off his headmistress as an old barn owl alighted upon the windowsill.  
"See? It turned out fine, and our friend here seems no worse for the wear."  
Dumbledore seemed not to notice the singed tail feathers or slightly crumpled wing.

The owl cocked its head at Dumbledore, glaring in the way only owls could,  
_'I f****** hate you, old man'_

* * *

Everything's scrunched up -_- I wanted to tab the portions with the letters and the flashback, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work in the editor, tis rather frustrating. I hate grammar and formatting so proofreading is not something I enjoy doing. As it is, there may be more than a few screw ups hiding here. If you find any please mention it in a comment so that I can hopefully avoid it in my next chapters.


	2. Flag 2: Diagon Alley

Flag 2: Diagon Alley  
Albus Dumbledore was, in a word, perplexed. And that was saying something. After all, when you're hailed as the greatest wizard since Merlin and have faced down Dark Lords on multiple occasions, you tend to find very few things perplexing. And yet, here he was, sitting in a small home in Japan, across a set of rather unusual teens, and the only word he could find to describe the situation was _perplexed._ It wasn't the occupants of the room that Dumbledore found perplexing, rather the atmosphere. For some odd reason, a strange, familiar presence weighed down heavily, though the people across from him seemed not to notice anything unusual. Truly, what was this feeling? He had felt it when he was fighting Grindelwald in that battle so many years ago. Ah yes, now he remembered what it was: killing intent. And a lot of it.

Worriedly glancing towards the other occupants of the room, he took in their appearances again. In the middle of the sofa sat a stern-looking, brown-haired young man who seemed completely absorbed in some strange device in his hands. _'Keima Katsuragi'_ Dumbledore assumed to himself, the student he had originally been asked to procure, as well as the sole male in the group. "Ahem" Even the sound of him clearing his voice seemed unable to rouse the teen from his activities. The others, however turned to him expectantly.

The young lady sitting to the boy's right was...well..._pink_. She was adorned in a simple dress of various shades of pink and white, large round glasses perched atop her nose. Even her _hair _was pink, though from what Dumbledore could tell, it looked very natural. The only article of clothing that wasn't a shade of pink was the large bow tied up in her hair: a shocking yellow. She looked like spring.

"Um, Dumbledore-san?" the girl he had been studying spoke up rather uncertainly.

"Ah, my apologies for staring my dear, your hair color took me by surprise miss..?"

"Kanon, Nakagawa Kanon, sir." she claimed, bowing respectfully. "This hair color is not common where you come from?" a slight frown on her face.

"I'm afraid not my dear, needless to say I was quite surprised when I saw it. It is the same with the young man with green hair and the two young ladies with purple hair." Turning to those in question he smiled kindly, twinkling eyes silently inquiring their names.

The one with green hair answered first, and rather exuberantly at that, "Goido Yui, and I'm actually a girl, Professor-san."

Startled, Dumbledore found that he...no, she...was right. Despite her masculine mannerisms and appearance, her voice was most definitely feminine, though even that was slightly difficult to catch with the way she spoke.

"Takahara Ayumi" The first violet haired girl seemed to have a rather hyper personality.

"Haqua du Lot Herminium." The second violet haired girl spoke curtly, and in contrast to the other girl, seemed rather glum and put off. Her eyes never met Dumbledore's, as she was too busy glaring resentfully at the other girls in the room.

Finally turning his attention to the three as of yet unidentified people in the room, Dumbledore listened patiently as they introduced themselves. The dark-haired girl with braided loops identified herself as 'Ayukawa Tenri'. This particular girl seemed especially strange, as every so often, the expression on her face would shift from a sweet, innocent naivete, to a calm calculating demeanor and back again. The shift was barely noticeable, but it was there. The small, blond child carried an air of elegance and a doll in her lap and introduced herself as 'Kujyo Tsukiyo'.

Finally, a dark haired girl holding a broom introduced herself, "Elucia de Lute Irma, but everyone calls me Elsea." Like the other girl, Haqua, Elsea sported a skull-like hairpiece and flowing garment.

Dumbledore found this garment rather intriguing, as it seemed to float around the girls' shoulders instead of simply resting upon them. Literally, it appeared to be suspended in midair, though it would appear that no one saw any sort of significance in that.

"Well then, I believe that all of you know the reason I am here?" He paused to observe the others nod, "and I take it that your parents or guardians have already assented to this idea?" More nods. "Very well, no point in simply idling by. Regretfully, it would appear that one student was unable to attend this meeting." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the confused glances he was getting. "I assume you are aware of a Shiori Shiomiya, correct?"

"Ah, Shiori!" Keima had finally looked away from his device to call out to a corner of the room.

Almost immediately, a quiet 'eep' was heard and a pile of books toppled over, revealing a timid, black-haired girl with two small ribbons affixed to the sides of her head. She was holding an open book half her face, which was a bright cherry red. "K-K-Keima-kun?"

"Hello there young lady, I apologize for not having realized you were there. I take it you also know why I am here then?" questioned Dumbledore kindly.

Shiori barely nodded an affirmative, meticulously studying the ground by her feet. The book was now covering all but her eyes.

"Well, then I don't see much of a point in delaying, everyone please place a hand on this." Dumbledore produced a coffee mug with the words 'World's Best Headmaster' stamped out on the side.  
Glancing uncertainly at each other, the teens hesitantly placed a hand upon the mug.

* * *

A sickening twist later and Diagon alley found eight students valiantly trying to hold in their breakfast and their headmaster patiently waiting. Once everyone was composed, Dumbledore proceeded to explain the plan, handing them a long scroll of rolled up parchment as he did so: The newest Hogwarts students were to buy what they could with the small amount of gold he had given them, while he stopped quickly by Gringotts in order to procure more gold to cover the rest of their supplies. After briefly explaining wizarding currency and wishing them luck, Dumbledore departed.

It was only several minutes later, standing outside of Gringotts the Dumbledore realized that his young charges had very little means of communication with a good majority of Wizarding London. Being multilingual, Dumbledore had easily forgotten how difficult language barriers were to surpass. He had even forgotten to set the children up with a temporary translation charm. Oh dear, he was getting quite forgetful these days. Stroking his beard worriedly, Dumbledore resolved to quickly finish his business at gringotts and then find his newest students. He hoped dearly that the children would be able to manage themselves well enough without him.

Obscurus Books, one of the many shops that littered Diagon Alley found Tenri and Keima standing before the store clerk who had just rung up their books.

"Right, so that's gonna be 27 galleons, 53 sickles and 29 knuts" The bored-looking clerk droned as he flipped languidly through a Playwitch magazine. He read those things for the articles. Honest. Not hearing the usual clatter of coins which signaled it was time for him to actually do his job, he reluctantly tore his gaze away from the magazine. The braid-loop girl on the other side of the counter was staring blankly at him. "Umm, you know, money?" she continued to stare. "Y'know, to pay" a halfhearted wave to the pile of books "for these?" Now Mr. Clerk (who shall henceforth be named 'Bob') grew rather irritated. Was this girl some kind of simpleton?

Another couple of seconds of staring stretched on before the girl turned to her companion, a bespectacled boy, completely engrossed in...something. Really now, what was that? She spoke rapidly though seemingly timidly to the boy in some foreign language and was rewarded with a muttered, short response. Apparently, the boy had just said the wrong thing, as the girl's eyes narrowed dangerously, startling Bob with the sudden change. She then proceeded to chew the boy out, as far as Bob could tell, at least. Bob silently bemoaned his poor fortune as the one-sided Argument unfolded in front of him, why did he have to get stuck with all the weirdos?

"Is something the matter?"

A wispy, singsong voice drew his attention, and he nearly jumped when he noticed the odd, blonde girl standing beside him. With a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes, the girl was watching the argument with interest

"Well...just...that." Bob helplessly gestured to the braid-loop girl whom, it seemed, had made very little progress, if her companions noncommittal grunts were anything to go by.

The girl burst into a smile, as if she had come across a great revelation. In the same airy voice she exclaimed, "Oh! I know how to fix that!"

She did? Lucky him! If she knew a translation charm, or something of the sort, this noisy couple could finish their business and he could return to his...

"_Silencio_" A flourish of the girl's wand, and Ms. Braid-loops was no longer making any sound.

What? Confusedly staring at the beaming girl, Bob sighed. Why had he gotten his hopes up? "You know" he began exasperatedly "I need to be able to _understand_ them If they're ever going to finish buying their books. Silencing them doesn't really help me at all."

"Oh. _Oh_!"

Bob rolled his eyes at seeing her face light up in understanding.

"Well, I may..." The girl waved her wand twice, once to cancel the silencing spell and a second time, muttering "_Vox Intellego,_" her brow scrunched in concentration.

The spell seemed to have worked, as the girl's scolding transitioned smoothly into english.

"...wouldn't be a problem at all if you hadn't wandered off and lost everyone else!"

"It couldn't be helped. The bonus activity was about to start, and I'm not able to get a good connection." The duo was quickly garnering more than their fair share of stares as the boy was stretching as high as he possibly could, device held to the heavens.

"Stop that!" she attempted to yank his arms down, to no avail. He stood fast. "People are staring! Do you ever think of anything but your stupid games?!"

That seemed to get his attention. With terrifying swiftness he twitched his head in her direction, an intense stare focused upon her. Unknowingly, she blushed. In a robotic monotone he spoke a single word: "_NO_."

Diana's fuming was cut short at an irate, "HEY!"

Diana turned, wide-eyed, "You can speak Japanese?"

Remembering that they were still customers, if irksome ones, Bob forced himself to regain his composure. Wouldn't do to lose another job, right? "No. This is a translation charm. Now please pay, there are customers who may want to pay."

"Ah, well thank you sir..."

"You want to thank me? Then just please, for the_love _of Merlin's dirty _undershorts_, just pay and leave, I've had quite enough for one day. Besides, I didn't do anything; it was that girl over there," he jabbed a thumb at the blonde girl beaming at them.

Ignoring the angered tone, Diana bowed deeply to the girl, "Thank you very much. I'm Ayukawa Tenri, and this" she jerked a thumb at the idiot and his game "is Katsuragi Keima, who are you?"

"It was no problem at all, My name's Luna Lovegood. Though...what is he doing?" at the last part, her voice turned quizzical. At least that's what Diana assumed; it was quite difficult to tell.

"Don't mind him, he is quite obsessed with his video games."

"Video...games?" Now The confusion was clear, though not without a hint of interest.

"They're...nevermind. You just need to know that _that_ thing," she gestured to the object the boy was still holding in the air, now grunting from exertion, "is the reason we got separated from our group."

"So it's like the fox-fires that lead people astray? Daddy and I were planning on catching some this summer, but we couldn't find any." Her voice turned thoughtful, "It's quite strange really, we would set off and it would be getting dark before we knew it, and we had no idea how we got to where we were. Really quite strange."

"Umm, not quite. Anyway, thank you for this charm of yours, Luna, we shouldn't have any problems thanks to you."

The blonde mourned, "I don't think the charm would last too long, we never really got into translation spells at school. I only saw that particular one in a book I was reading, so I decided to try it out."

"Well that is a bit troublesome" Diana smiled kindly at Luna "It's OK, you've already been a great help, we'll just have to find our way back before it wears off."

"Perhaps I should come with you?"

"You really don't have to! We've already troubled you too much. Besides, two of our friends are from Europe, so they probably know english, we'll be fine."

"It's quite alright, I don't really have many friends anyway, so I'd be alone otherwise"

The sheer bluntness and honesty with which Luna had stated this-as calmly as if she had been commenting on the weather, no less-was really quite sad in Diana's eyes.

"Normally daddy accompanies me, but right now he's busy telling the owner of the apothecary how to get rid of this particularly large nargle infestation. For some reason the shop owner always gets angry and starts yelling, so I left to do my shopping on my own. It would be nice to go with someone." Luna beamed once more at the nod of assent from the darker haired girl.

After finally paying, Diana, Keima and Luna left the shop. Bob sighed in relief as the bell at the door tinkled, signalling the departure of the rather problematic customers. A few minutes later, the bell tinkled again, and glancing up Bob didn't even bother stifling an anguished groan. A gaggle of girls, with every shade of hair color, from purple, to green to _pink_ of all colors made their way into the store, speaking rapidly in the same language the other two had been speaking. Bob allowed his head to slam into the counter, sobbing slightly. He just couldn't get a break.

* * *

Omake:  
_Shortly prior to Dumbledore's arrival_  
Haqua skipped happily up to the Katsuragi residence, she was about to go away with him (and Elsea) for a year. A whole entire. year.

"Kei...I mean Kaaatsuragi are you ready to go?" Haqua sang excitedly as she entered his home and made her way to the guest room.

"Are you ok Haqua? you're acting like Elsea. Completely abnormal if you ask me." After a few seconds of silence, Keima looked up, confused by the lack of response. "Haqua? Now you've gone quiet, what's wrong?"

"K-K-Katsuragi! what are they doing here?" brandishing an arm at the source of her agitation. There, sprawled out onto the floor, the six goddesses were congregated about a platter of snacks.

"We're here for the same reason you are, girl. We were invited as well." The crimson-haired, blind goddess, Vulcan, claimed, adding in an undertone "And to ensure that you do not steal Tsukiyo's husband away, demon temptress."

Face reddening, Haqua was far too flustered to respond. Thankfully, she didn't have to. The last proclamation had an effect akin to setting fire to explosives. Immediately, the room erupted in indignant cries from the other goddesses.

"Tsukiyo's husband? Might I remind you that Kanon's the only one amongst us who has actually confessed?" Apollo looked just like her host, save for the two triangular markings under her eyes.

"Yes! Then right after you spent weeks in your 'hydration'! Keima doesn't need such a weak girl as his wife, dearest sister." Yui's normally tea-green hair was now a vibrant gold, a small circlet adorning her forehead. Mars was currently in control.

"Sh-Shiori too!" cried the diminutive goddess, Minerva, one eye peering from behind her host.

"Is this really the time or place to be discussing this?" Pragmatic as ever, it was clear that Tenri had let Diana out.

A large yawn was heard, the bickering had woken the youngest sister. Ayumi Ayukawa's skin had turned a few shades darker, while conversely, her hair turned quite a few shades lighter. Her goddess, Mercury, yawned once more before stating sleepily, "You all seem to keep forgetting that Keima has already proposed to me. He is already my husband."

Of course, this only served to stir up a whole new storm of complaints and yells.

"H-HUSBAND?!" Haqua had finally found her voice, but was quickly cut off again, when suddenly a 'CRACK' was heard, shortly followed by a knock on the door.

"Everyone please be quiet and sit down!" Elsea hopped up and rushed to answer the door. Reluctantly the girls plopped onto various spots on the sofa and floor while Haqua stood, glaring angrily at the assembled goddesses. Shiori rushed into a corner and began fervently stacking books. Haqua remained standing aside the couch, the animosity pouring from the demon prodigy was matched only by that of the Goddesses. The various hair colors faded back to their original shades, signalling the Goddess's returning control to their host, though this did little to alleviate the viciously oppressive atmosphere. Moments later Elsea walked back into the room, leading a wizened old man with a long flowing beard into the room. blue eyes twinkled behind glasses perched on his crooked nose.  
As soon as Dumbledore walked into the room, his eyes widened ever so slightly at the heavy tension in the air. Well, this was rather perplexing.

* * *

Le sigh. I had originally wanted the omake to be integrated into the actual chapter, though I found it difficult to fit it in without having to resort to flashback. Personally I don't like to insert flashbacks and will generally avoid them as I feel like they disrupt the flow of the story. The only time I actually use them is when I feel that it would be pertinent to explaining the reasons for something important, e.g. the flashback with the chief in the last chapter. It's only after I finished writing it that I realized how long it was. In fact I don't really consider it an omake as much as it is an actual part of the chapter. Oh well, I suppose this way works as well.  
Anyways, heres chapter 2 of this story, I really, truly hope my grammar/formatting is at least a tad better than it was in my last chapter. Also, I am up for suggestions for capture targets for hogwarts, seeing as I can only come up with three or so that I am able to think off of the top of my head that would be worth doing.


	3. Flag 3: The Train

A quick-ish response to AKAAkira (Thanks for the review ^_^): First off, the way I see it, Dumbles is certainly intelligent, though I don't remember any point in the books that specifically stated that he was well versed in muggle affairs (Though it's been a while since i've read the books, so I could be wrong) especially not modern muggle technology. Technically the PFP is ahead of the Harry Potter timeline, but let's please overlook the temporal issues in favor of continuity please? As for hair color, I do remember that metamorphagi were rather rare even in the wizarding world, so I would imagine that Dumbles wouldn't be expecting to see so many odd colors in a supposedly muggle community. As for his forgetting the translation...yea that really was done mostly for laughs, though keep in mind that Dumbles is old and still human, I'm sure he forgets things from time to time.

* * *

Flag 3: The Train

The sound of a slam and shattering glass woke Elsea. Thought to be quite honest, the fact that she had managed to fall asleep was quite amazing in and of itself; the other girls had been bickering rather heatedly and...wait, were they still fighting? Cracking open her eyes, Elsea winced as rays of sunlight assaulted her eyes. Yup. They were still fighting. Stretching and yawning, Elsea glanced about herself, confused as to where she was before recalling that she was currently aboard the Hogwarts Express. Leaping out of her seat and greeting the other 8 occupants of their rather crowded compartment, Elsea wandered outside, searching for the source of the sound that had woken her.

Elsea didn't have to look very far. There, no more than three compartments away, the floor of the train was littered with razor-sharp glass, which appeared to belong to the empty window frame of one of the compartments. Elsea tried to resist. She really, _really_did, but a couple hundred years of serving cleaning duty had ingrained an instinctive desire to tidy up the mess she saw before her. Almost without realizing it, Elsea was standing outside of the compartment, readying the broom which was ever at her side. Cranking the dial on her magic broom to low, Elsea drew back. Fortunately, a scandalized yell emanated from inside the compartment, staying the raven-haired demon's hand. Elsea paused, mere moments before she would have blasted the offending shards of glass (as well as a sizable portion of the train) to kingdom come. Curious as ever, Elsea peeked into the compartment.

"Ron!" A bushy-haired, brunette girl was scolding an upset-looking ginger boy.

"Well.. . making it look like he knows everything and we don't.. . ." The boy, now identified as 'Ron' snarled, "'Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry.'. . . Dad could've got a promotion any time... he just likes it where he is. . . ."

""Of course he does," the girl reassured him quietly. The girl drew her wand, waving it while muttering '_reparo'._  
"Don't let Malfoy...did you just hear something?"

Elsea had been unable to suppress a loud yelp of surprise as the previously shattered glass flew up, reformed into a single pane and place itself neatly into the window. Not, however, before making a rather nasty gash along the girl's forearm, tearing her sleeve in the process

Flinging the door open, the wizard and witch peered into the hallway, and were surprised to find an orientally-dressed girl standing outside of there compartment. Her head was down and she was cradling her arm, the trio's eyes widening when they noticed the gash.  
"Oh my god! What happened? Are you okay?" The teen witch quickly swept past the two dumbfounded boys.

As the girl looked up, the group was met with a childish pout and tear filled eyes "Oh, don't cry, here I can make it better, _episkey! Tergeo!_"

The girl's eyes widened as the wound knitted itself and the blood disappeared "Th-thank you!"  
"It was no problem, how did that even happen anyway?"

"I was cleaning up the glass when it flew up and cut me! But it looks like it fixed itself.."

"Oh! um, I'm sorry, that was my fault, I used a spell to repair the window. Why didn't you just use magic to clean up the mess?"

Elsea blinked. Once. Twice. "I guess... just forgot?"

Though the three found this rather odd, no one decided to comment on it, assuming the girl was just a ditz. It wasn't as if they were wrong.  
An uncertain hum caught their attention and they turned, "Can I stay here? My compartment is full and all my friends are still fighting."

"Of course! My name is Hermione Granger, and those two are.."

"Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you! My name is Elucia de Lute Irma, but people just call me Elsea." The girl bowed respectfully.

* * *

The train ride, went along peacefully enough. Ron had fallen asleep partway through the conversation, and Harry looked as if he would drowse off at any moment. The two girls had been chatting endlessly since Elsea had joined their compartment.  
For the second time that day, a large commotion resounded in the corridor, drawing the attention of the other passengers. Just as the express entered the borders of Hogsmeade Village, an anguished howl reverberated down the hall, causing the golden trio's hair to stand on end.

"NO! NO! GIVE IT BACK TO ME! MY SAVE!"

"Keima-kun, please calm down! You're making a scene!" Tenri was latched onto his arm, attempting to yank him back into the compartment.

"IT JUST STOPPED WORKING! WHY? I JUST CHARG-mphhh!" The screams were muffled as a second girl, Yui, had wrapped her arm about his throat in a light chokehold and had one hand over his mouth, also trying to subdue him. Ayumi followed moments later, arms wrapped about his waist, also helping to yank the boy back into the compartment.

"Wuz going on? 's he having a fit?" Ron was still a tad groggy having been woken from a nap.

"It look like something happened to nii-sama's game" Elsea whispered to her three companions.

"Game?" Harry spotted the device the boy clutched to his chest. "Is that...a PFP? Why does he have that with him here?"

"What's a PFP?"

"It's a muggle thing, Ron. And doesn't he know that muggle electronics won't work at Hogwarts?"

Apparently, Keima had heard him, as his eyes shot open in panic and he struggled even more ferociously. Finally tearing free of the girls, Keima wailed, "Take me _BACK!_ Dammit, I don't care if I die, just take me _BACK HOME!_I want to spend my last moments playing my games!"With that he bolted, searching frantically for an exit. He didn't get very far. Moments later, a sliver of purple snaked its way out of the compartment and quickly knotted itself around Keima's ankle, toppling him over. The material deftly wound itself about the falling boy, halting his descent and holding him suspended in the air. Within moments, the angry boy looked very much like a purple mummy, with only his bespectacled eyes peeking through the bandages. Muffled, aggravated groans could still be heard as the boy was floated back into the compartment. Tenri, realizing that she was now alone in the corridor and bearing the brunt of several confused, amused and even frightened stares, bowed several times in apology. Face beet red, the girl quickly backed into the room, head still bowed.

* * *

Elsea was separated from her new acquaintances and reunited with her friends once the train reached Hogwarts. While the normal students shuffled off towards the carriages, the group of Japanese teens were ushered into a side room of the Great Hall, and were told their cue to enter.

Shortly after the last first-year was sorted, Dumbledore stood and made an announcement. "Now before you all begin a much-needed meal, I have a few more introductions to deliver. As it turns out, Hogwarts has been asked to take in a couple of students all the way from Maejima, Japan."

That was their cue. Entering through the large double doors of the Great Hall, the japanese students casually made their way to the front, attracting many stares and glances from the Hogwarts students.

"Therefore, I am sure it does not have to be said, but I expect that you will show them respect and appropriate behaviour

As the new students proceeded to the front, whispers could be heard:

'_her hair's so _long'

'_I love that cloth on her shoulders, It looks so comfortable!'_

'_there's no way that color's natural...'_

'_That can't be Kanon-chan can it?'_

'_Idiot! as if a star like her would come here!'_

Ron sniggered, "Look, it's that nutter that was on the train, I wonder how they got him to calm down?"  
It was indeed the boy who had made quite a ruckus, though now he seemed completely calm and collected. Had Harry not witnessed the display on the train, he could have easily assumed that he was a no-nonsense sort of person.

"Now our guests had already been sorted earlier, so allow me to introduce you to your new housemates. Assigned to Hufflepuff are Tenri Ayukawa, Elucia de Lute Irma and Kanon Nakagawa."  
The three girls mentioned stepped forward and bowed, then walked to the politely clapping yellow and black-clad table.

After Dumbledore had uttered the final name, there had been some light gasps of disbelief as well as squeals of delight from a few Hogwart's students.

"Hermione, who is she? It seems like people know her."

To Harry's utter shock, the brunette witch shook her head, indicating that she didn't know.

Seeing Harry's look of disbelief, Hermione blushed, "I don't know absolutely everything, you know."

"It's really not that unusual, you know," a female student piped up.

"What do you mean?" Harry and Hermione asked simultaneously.

"Kanon-chan's a really popular idol in Japan; her fame hasn't quite reached Britain or the west for that matter. Especially not wizards. Really, the only people who would recognize her are the Japanese muggleborns."

"Which you are, I take it?"

"Yup! Though I am really surprised to find out she's a witch! And coming to our school, no less! I really have to get an autograph or something! I wonder if..."

At this point the two tuned out the now-rambling girl, as Dumbledore had begun introducing the new students once more.

"To our lovers of knowledge, the Ravenclaw house, I introduce Shiori Shiomiya and Haqua du Lot Herminium."  
The dark haired girl with two bows blushed and bowed, skittering to the bronze and blue table. The proud-looking purple girl merely nodded with a slight bow before calmly following the shy girl.

Another pause as the clapping and applause died out, then:

"To the honorable and brave Gryffindors, I introduce Yui Goido and Ayumi Takahara"  
The green and purple haired girls both waved exuberantly before bounding towards the enthusiastic roars of the lions.

"'Mione?"

"Yes, Ron?"

"The green-haired guy is coming towards us."

"That's a girl Ron."

"...Are you sure? How can you tell?"

"Women's intuition Ron."

"And last but certainly not least, to the cunning and proud Slytherins, I introduce Katsuragi Keima and Tsukiyo Kujyo"  
The two remaining student bowed and trodded over to join their silver and green housemates. Well, Keima trodded, Tsukiyo walked elegantly. Because Tsukiyo was always elegant, and trudging was _not_ elegant.  
The cheers were nowhere near as excited as they had been for the other students; even those the applause from the snakes seemed rather muted. Apparently, no one knew what to make of these two stoic individuals.

"So the git's in with the snakes, eh? I would've guessed. It's not normal, the way he acted out on the train."

"Ronald, you don't even know him. You can't just judge him because he went to Slytherin. I'm sure he isn't a terrible person."

"Come off it 'Mione" Harry interjected, "You can't say that the way he flipped out on the train was normal, can you?"

"Well, I will admit he is a bit...odd"

'_more like nutters'_ Ron muttered.

"But that doesn't automatically make him a terrible person! He is one of Elsea's friends, after all, and she's a nice person!"

"She's his sister, actually" the dark-green haired girl had plopped into a seat across from them. "Yui Goido, but you probably already know that. Elsea told me you were the ones that let her stay with them on the train, right?"

"Sister?! but they're nothing alike! They don't even have the same last name!" Ron was finding it rather difficult to match up the two supposed siblings. His companions were thinking somethings along the same lines.

"Ah, something like that? illegitimate-half-siblings is how she put it, I think. Apparently, Keima-kun's mother wasn't all too happy to hear it." By now, Yui had situated herself comfortably and was piling food onto her plate.

"Ok, so we know that the freak and Elsea are related. In a way. But how do the rest of you know each other?"

Taking no notice of Ron's rudeness, Yui pondered before answering, "We all went to the same school, mostly. Tenri didn't, but she's Keima-kun's childhood friend."

"Oh, that's right, Dumbledore said that you came from Japan. I must say, I'm impressed, your english is really good, you barely have an accent." Hermione interrupted.  
"That's because of this" Yui flashed a silver bangle hanging from her wrist "Dumbledore-san said it had a permanent translation charm on it."

"A permanent translation charm? That's very high-level magic! But I guess if it's Dumbledore it wasn't much of a problem."

Humming in acknowledgement, Yui continued, "So we all pretty much met through Katsuragi. I think we're something like sisters now? Mostly anyways."

"Wow, you're that close to the other girls?"

"Eehh, not particularly, no. Its more like all of us, except for Elsea and Haqua, are victims of circumstance. Or something of the sort. I'm not entirely sure how these things work to be honest."  
Hermione seemed rather confused by this explanation, but no matter how much she prodded, Yui refused to elaborate.

As the first night concluded, the students were introduced to their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor Moody, and were informed of one more shocking piece of news: The Triwizard tournament was to be held once more.

Excitedly, the students shuffled off to their respective dormitories, preparing for what was sure to be an interesting year.

* * *

Omake  
_The sorting God only knows:_  
"Well, let's take a look, shall we?" The hat dove into the boy's mind and was startled with what it was confronted with.  
It stood in a room consisting of four and a half tatami mats. Random everyday objects were strewn about messily, and what looked like a half eaten cake lying on the floor. From the sole light fixture hung a small stuffed creature wearing a cape. Wandering about in the new body it found itself to have, the hat opened the door and was stunned to find an almost identical room behind it. Rushing to the next door, then the next, and the next, the hat found the same room in the same state of disarray. Deciding to inspect the area more carefully, the hat found that there were some minute differences.

This particular room seemed to have more books than usual, and a half-filled bottle of green tea lay on the floor. A notebook lay propped open on the desk, several pages torn out and a story partway written it writing was oriental in nature, so the hat was not entirely sure.

Proceeding to the next room, the hat found various celebratory items, many of them cheering on an 'Ayumi' on her track meet.  
The next room had a drum set. Odd, the boy didn't seem to be musically inclined at all.

And so it went, on and on and on from room to room, all mostly identical, with differences of varying degrees in each. Posters of a famous pop star in one, a telescope in another, and something that looked like a robot in yet another. Maybe it was a robot; it had wheels and a box for a head, though for some odd reason there was random food stuffed into the box. On the top, the word 'Roco' was scrawled. A not left crumpled nearby read only two words: Perfect human.

"...ello? Hello? Are you there? Damn hat, wake up and sort me!"

Breaking out of it's reverie and reviewing the rather strange mindscape, the hat had some serious thinking to do. "Gryffindor? You have a fiery passion, though I do not sense a large amount of righteousness or courage in you."

"So just put in Gryffindor, I have one of the traits, right?"

"Patience. You also have intelligence. Of a sort. Though I do not believe it would be what your housemates would expect."

"Knowledge is knowledge, just put me there."

Choosing to ignore the impatient child, the hat continued its evaluation, "You do show a good amount of loyalty, Hufflepuff would be suited to you as well."

"Please just place me, my game is on standby right now, and there's a time sensitive event happening very soon."

"This is rather difficult, you seem to have a great many personas. Which one is the personality that is truly you I wonder?"

Keima gave the mental equivalent of a blink, then stated as if it were the most obvious answer in the world, "Whichever suits the situation of course."

"...What?"

"Well, it depends on the capture target. For example some will require me to be of a more energetic temperament while a quiet, reserved one will work for other targets. Unfortunately, the real world has some very inconsistent parameters so I have to tweak what I have, but basically I act however I need to get results."

"Well with that attitude you would be quite suited for Slytherin. Goal Driven haughty, impatient..."

"Feel free to shut up anytime now."

"But that which you are passionate about may cause some issues. Perhaps...Hey! What are you doing? Don't do tha..."  
Impatiently, Keima had torn off the hat and snatched his PFP out of his pocket in one fluid motion. Resuming tapping the buttons, Keima informed the staring wizard,

"The hat said Slytherin. It said that there may be issues, though I don't think it matters all too much."  
Watching the boy pound away at the small device's buttons, Dumbledore could guess just exactly what issues the hat could be referring to. "Perhaps you should wait for the sorting hat's final decision, it has been known to sway in opinion..."

"Not necessary. This house will suit me well enough, so we should just proceed with the sorting." The decisiveness in Keima's voice made it clear that he was _not _putting that infuriating object back on.

A sigh, then, "Very well then, next..."

* * *

So here's chapter three, whatd you think? Love it? Hate it? Think I should die in a hole? Tell me. Favorites and follows are all well and good, but I really like reviews cuz they're fun to read.  
And if anyone can name the reference in the extra you get all the interwebz. Or something along those lines. Not entirely sure, ill think up a suitable prize or something.


	4. Flag 4: Monsters Come Out to Play

**I LIVE. Though probably for not much longer if you're all as pissed off with me as I think you are. I have tons of great excuses and reasons for not updating that I am just itchin to use, but those can wait til after the chapter. I've kept you waiting long enough methinks. In the words of our favorite jailbird, 'I've done my waiting, 12 years of it! In Azkaban!'**

**…..I'll shut up now.**

* * *

Flag 4: Monsters Come Out to Play

The introduction of the Japanese transfers was going quite well in Dumbledore's opinion. Of course they had a fair share of issues; Miss Kujyou apparently took a lot of convincing to leave the astronomy tower, and Miss Shiomiya rarely ventured far from the library. Not that Madame Pince minded; the strict librarian had taken an immediate liking to the quiet, obedient bibliophile. Dumbledore wasn't too terribly worried, after all these were just minor character quirks and didn't require a great deal of handling.

However, one particular transfer, the sole male of the group, seemed to generate far more complaints from his professors than the rest of the lot put together. This was something that both amused and bothered the headmaster to no end, as he was almost guaranteed a daily complaint from one irate professor or another, leading to his current situation. Surprisingly, the most vocal of the complaints came from Severus. It was odd, seeing as his potions master never complained about the residents of his own house. _Never_. Yet there he was in all his greasy glory. Dumbledore subtly slipped another lemon drop from the jar on his table-his fifth one since Snape burst into his office-and popped it into his mouth, smiling bemusedly as his right-hand-man voiced his displeasure at the Japanese transfer.

"-And furthermore, the boy absolutely refuses to heed the multiple warnings that I have been so kind as to give!"

"I see"

"He refuses to acknowledge anything but those…._things_…of his Albus"

"hm"

"And what, may I ask , are those in any case?"

"A muggle device Severus"

"Which should not be operable on Hogwart's grounds."

"Ah yes, I really must find out he managed to do that."

"He must be disciplined, Albus."

"That's nice, Severus."

Snape narrowed his eyes before giving an exasperated groan, "You're not taking this seriously at all, are you, headmaster?"

"Not at all" Dumbledore admitted cheerfully as he unwrapped another lemon drop.

"So what" Snape fumed, trying to keep his temper "do you propose I do about this…issue?"

"I will leave that to you Severus; I am fully confident that you will figure it out. You are my right hand man after all." Dumbledore peered sadly into the now empty jar of sweets, "Now if that is all, I must insist that you make your departure Severus, I do have other matters to attend to after all."

Snape gave an internal groan as he trudged down the winding staircase. Really now, while he respected Dumbledore immensely, sometimes he really wanted nothing more to smack some sense into the man. If he didn't know any better, he'd think the elderly headmaster had finally taken leave of his senses. His lips twitched in what would have been a dry smile. How would the Dark Lord react if he found out that his one fear in the world was a senile old man?

Snape was pulled out of his brooding as he sensed someone approaching. Glancing at the intruder, he was greeted by an unusual sight; one of the transfers was walking along the corridor dragging behind her two unconscious heaps. Her face brightened when she saw the potions professor and she greeted him.

"Oh! Hi there professor! I think these belong to you." The dark haired girl dropped the two boys she had been dragging along at Snape's feet. "They were harassing some poor girl."

"And so you decided to…handle…them?" Snape looked down at Crabbe and Goyle who, despite being dirty and unconscious, did not seem all the worse for the wear. He then glanced back at the girl, whom he identified as Yui Goido. "Miss Goido, I do not know how things are done in Japan, but attacking another student is quite frowned upon here. That will be 50 points from Gryffindor."

Yui looked confused for a moment before realization dawned, "Oh! No! I didn't attack them professor, they got run over."

Snape blinked, "Run…over?"

"Yeap. I know this is a magic school and all, but don't you think it's a bit dangerous to have things like that running around the halls?"

Snape ground his teeth, "Things like _what_ exactly, Miss Goido?"

"The big, ugly, blue panda looking thing. Except with this scrunched up horn growing out of the side of its head" Yui paused at the look on the professor's face, "is that…not normal here after all?"

In a strained voice, Snape replied, "No Miss Goido, I assure that it is not 'normal' as you say." Noticing the distinct lack of students milling about, he added, "Now I believe class has started and I can take points for you skipping. 10 points from Gryffindor, and another 10 if you do not move."

Yui frowned but wisely chose to keep her silence as she wandered away, giving the potions professor a reproachful glare.

Looking down at his two unconscious students, Snape sighed, he really would have to speak to Dumbledore about Hagrid letting his 'pets' roam free. But not now, he decided. He really was not up to dealing with the old man again for now.

* * *

Tsukiyo Kujyo was on one of her rare forays from the astronomy tower. On the first couple days of their stay at Hogwarts, she had found a nice little corner of the tower and had immediately busied herself by setting up her carpet and chair. Of course, she was no longer completely reliant on her own little space, but old habits die hard. Unfortunately, good things never last, and after a whole week of skipping classes in favor of remaining in the unlooked corner of the tower, she was found by the stern lady in emerald and talked into joining classes. This was why she was now walking the halls, desperately lost and more than a little annoyed.

"Why must I spend my time in this dreary, dirty castle?"

"Indeed," Vulcan muttered "it is rather…unpleasant."

"You would think that they would go through a bit of trouble to clean this place. Look, bugs everywhere!" Tsukiyo was referring to the humming mass of what appeared to be insects along the roof. Though it seemed unlikely that they would come down and bother her, she nevertheless wanted to get out of that hallway, as the humming was rather grating and was giving her a headache. She found it rather difficult to really concentrate on anything.

"Well at least the grounds are beautiful, and the view from the tower is absolutely breathtaking. Much better than the roof of your old school. Or so my sisters tell me." Vulcan tried to placate her host, whom she could sense as growing less and less pleased with the situation.

The petite blonde 'hmphed.' When she had heard they were going to live in a castle, she had expected something a bit more….luxurious. Certainly not this dank, drafty, stone fortress. And why did she of all people have to be put in the dungeons? She would have preferred a room in one of the towers rather than the cold and dirty Slytherin commons. However, Tsukiyo was unable to actually voice any of these complaints, as they happened upon…something. Some creature had apparently decided to occupy the corridor they turned into, as it was just sitting there, gazing contentedly into space.

It was by no means _pretty. _Stubby blue arms and legs led up to an equally stubby body. Triangular ears were perched atop a rotund head, dopey eyes gazed out unfocusedly. The most striking trait was the magnificently useless horn that sprouted out the side of its head. The ivory bone twisted and spiraled in on itself, ultimately ending in a dull, inward point, completely incapable of harming anything. Unless it somehow broke off and impaled the creature through the neck, though that seemed to defeat the purpose of having a horn in the first place. Sitting on its hindquarters, it towered over the small girl by a head. Noticing that it was not alone in the corridor, the creature shifted from its sitting position and fell forward on all fours. It ambled curiously towards the newcomer, snorting excitedly, a fact that Tsukiyo observed with just a bit of apprehension.

Feeling that her host was in danger, Vulcan struck preemptively. She took control, the red tinge seeping into her locks the only sign that they had switched. Telekinetically reaching out, she snagged several suits of armor lining the halls and flung them at the approaching beast, careening it into the wall with a low moan. The creature languidly thrashed around for a few seconds underneath the iron prison before stilling. Feeling no further resistance from whatever that thing was, Vulcan warily loosened her control on the armor which fell apart to reveal…nothing. Whatever had remained of the defeated beast had vanished entirely, leaving nothing but scattered pieces of armor on the ground.

An angered howl from behind them caused Vulcan to whirl their body around. She cringed in disgust as she found a rather irate, scraggly man making his way towards them.

"I've caught you now! Students vandalizing the armor in the halls! Students out of class! I'll have you in detention for weeks, I will!" Filch raged.

Thinking quickly, the eldest of the Jupiter sisters caused a suit of armor to take a few wobbly steps before falling onto the approaching man. Muttering curses, Filch extricated himself from yet another mess he would be forced to clean, he looked up to see that his prey had made its exit. Yelling in frustration, he resolved to find the redheaded miscreant and give her the punishment she deserved. If he was lucky it was one of those Weasley troublemakers. Oh how he longed to shut the whole lot of them in detention!

Several hallways away, Vulcan delicately landed, folding the large pair of wings behind her back. Miraculously, the only things that had seen her in flight were the noisy portraits, some 'oohing' and 'aaahing' at the beautiful wings and halo and others reprimanding her for rowdiness in the halls.

The red hue leeched out of her hair, returning to its former golden sheen as Vulcan returned control to her host. Tsukiyo sighed. Really now, just what goes through the heads of the people who run this school?

* * *

Over the next couple of days, there were several reports of random encounters with strange, unidentifiable animals in the halls. Rumors about where these things came from circulated quickly, ranging from it being another Weasley prank, to the more commonly accepted theory that Hagrid had let his pets out to play and had lost track of them. By the end of the week, a good majority of the student population was quite miffed with the groundskeeper, and annoyed that he could not keep more control over his creatures.

Oddly enough, it was only the students that had seen the beasts. The professors themselves never actually saw the creatures for themselves. Rather, they had only heard about them secondhand from annoyed and terrified students who had been knocked down in the halls or swarmed by masses of insectile fairies. Filch in particular had gone nearly mad in his attempts to capture the elusive creatures, taking to hiding behind suits of armor or in broom closets and jumping out at the slightest noise. Needless to say, the students weren't very happy with him. Then again, they never were, really.

"Heavens, Argus" a startled McGonagall scolded, "what the devil are you thinking jumping out at me like that? I almost turned you into something small and unpleasant."

"But professor! The animals! In the corridors!"

Realizing what had the caretaker on edge, McGonagall attempted to calm him down, "Enough, Argus, I assure you that everyone is doing their best to locate the beasts, so kindly discontinue…whatever it is you are doing."

Surprisingly, Filch seemed reluctant to back down, blubbering excuses and pleading with the headmistress to allow him to continue his duties.

A tic throbbed over the transfiguration mistress's eye. Did this fool not realize just how positively _swamped_ everyone was with the current issue? She hissed, "_Argus. Enough. _We are _dealing_ with it so please, stand down._"_

Across the hall, a group of three was observing Filch getting a tongue lashing as they passed through.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Luna asked dreamily, gazing at the arguing professors.

"Hm? What is?" Keima asked disinterestedly.

After a particularly strenuous potions class (in which Keima remained blissfully unaware of his professor's growing bloodlust), he and Elsie had bumped into the platinum Ravenclaw who had helped him in Diagon Alley. Elsie, being the overly-friendly type, immediately offered for Luna to join them on their way to the Great Hall.

"Well I've been telling everyone about all the wonderful creatures me and daddy have been looking for, but no one seemed to be really interested. Now everyone's looking for them!" Luna beamed happily.

That seemed rather odd. Keima looked up and frowned. Why did that comment seem just slightly off? Glancing at Elsie, he found that she had not noticed anything, smiling obliviously as usual. Figures.

Before Keima could think about it any further, a group of girls broke through his musings. Ravenclaws, judging from the trim on their robes. They glanced quickly at Luna before giggling and whispering furiously amongst themselves. After a brief pause, one of the girls sauntered up to the group.

"What's this _Loonie_, finally found yourself a boy?" she sneered derisively. "Too bad he seems every bit the freak you are." Giving a scornful flick of her hair she walked back to her group whose whispering only increased in intensity.

Elsie appeared outraged while Keima frowned at the display. Luna on the other hand did not appear all too bothered. She sighed whimsically, "It's not their fault, I'm sure. The nargles have been rather thick lately. They fly around your head and muddle up your thoughts. You can't walk anywhere without seeing big clusters of them everywhere."

The moment this remark left her mouth, two things happened. First, the girls who had been steadily retreating yelped in surprise and disgust as a swarming, black mass of the miniscule fairies materialized and began relentlessly hounding them. Secondly, a very familiar sound sounded in the hall:

_DoroDoroDoroDoro_

Elsie's hand flew to her head to deactivate the alarm. Eyes wide, she stared at her foster-brother to see a similar look of surprise on his face.

Seemingly not noticing anything out of the ordinary, Luna continued, "-I've also heard that people have seen a Crumple-Horned Snorkak! How exciting!"

_DoroDoroDoroDoro_

The elusive, stubby, blue monster materialized, fading in from nonexistence. It gazed around sleepily then wandered off.

"I wonder if anyone has seen any heliopaths! The ministy's raising an army of them you know."

_DoroDoroDoroDoro_

Keima could swear he detected the slight smell of something burning.

"And –Mmphh!"

Keima had clamped a hand over the Ravenclaw girl's mouth to prevent any more creatures from spawning. Seeing her look of confusion, he quickly said, "Luna, something…came up. Elsie and I have to get going. Go head to the Great Hall without us, Ok?"

The girl looked up and nodded. When Keima removed the hand from her mouth she smiled and waved, "Well I will see you later then, I suppose."

Keima nodded, and then began to quickly travel in the direction of the library, his partner tagging along behind him. He needed to think up a plan of attack. As soon as Luna had disappeared from view, Elsie began, "Kami-nii, that…"

"Yes." The capturing god stowed the game into his pocket. The disinterested look that had occupied his face was gone, replaced by a focused one. He was all business now. "We found one. The target is Luna Lovegood. The conquest begins now!"

* * *

**Alright awesome finally a conquest target. I've been looking forward to the hell Keima is gonna have to go through in order to get through to Luna and tbh I'm slightly terrified I won't do it justice. Anyways, I am really, extremely, totally sorry that I haven't updated in a really long time. Stuff with college, family issues, writer's block and just sheer laziness have really put me off writing in general. The good news is that I think I've found a bit of a rhythm now so I should be crankin out updates a bit faster (where have we heard that before I wonder). But really, I will do my darndest to keep this updated at a decent pace. As for my other stories, I'd hate to abandon them, so I will try and update soon, though not as often as this (impending season 3 of twgok has got me fired up).**

**I really never had a clear picture of what a Snorkak should look like exactly, so I just stuck a crumpled horn onto the side of a snorlax's head and viola, Snorkak. Why snorlax? Cuz I swear to god that things my spirit animal. And it's awesome. But yea that's what it looks like if anyone wanted a clearer picture.**

**Oh and just for the record, the room I was referencing in the last chapter was from Tatami Galaxy which is a seriously underrated anime and you would do yourself a huge favor if you watched it. Cuz it's amazing.**

**Question: when I refer to a host and her goddess do I use 'she' or 'they'? Trivial, I know, but it's been sorta bugging me. I'm a bit of an OCD when it comes to wording.**

**Anyways that's it for this update. To all my readers, stay classy, keep calm and pierce the heavens.**


	5. Flag 5: Romancing the Moon Pt 1

**First off, to AKAAkira, I honestly love your reviews, they're incredibly insightful and they really do help me out in fleshing out the characters. To be honest, I feel like Dumbledore is an incredibly tricky bastard to get right and I'm really not planning on placing him in any serious roles aside from what's in the book. At least not yet. I dunno, for some reason I find it kinda difficult to nail his personality, so I guess I end up fudging it up a bit sometimes, though I try not to.**

**Anyways, here be chapter 5. Read, Enjoy, Review.**

* * *

Flag 5: Romancing the Moon Pt. 1

"So you finally decided to grace us with your presence, have you?"

Shiori blushed as she felt all eyes fall squarely on her. Right now she wanted desperately to be anywhere but here. Preferably in the library behind walls of thick, comforting books

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE," Moody roared. "What do you expect to see, staring down like that? Look up! Answer me clearly!"

Shiori desperately tried to form words, but her tongue refused to comply. She could feel a lump in her throat jerking wildly and prickly hot tears forming in the corner of her eyes. Why did she have to do this? Why couldn't he leave her alone? She wasn't good at talking to people. Especially not people who yelled and screamed at her. And especially not when she was the center of attention.

Luckily for her, Moody seemed to finally realize that his little outburst had garnered an audience; the entirety of the classroom was deeply engrossed in the events unfolding before them. He 'hmphed' then said gruffly, "Off to your seat lass, but I want to speak with you afterwards. We have things that must be discussed."

Nodding, she scampered off to her seat; face burning as she felt lingering stares burning a hole through her. The moisture in her eyes seemed to build even further; this was horrible! She shouldn't have left the library after all. Why did she agree to Keima's request to investigate Luna Lovegood?

Rather than being placed in the fourth year like Keima had been, Shiori, Tsukiyo and Elsea had been placed a year lower. A fact that Keima eagerly took advantage of upon finding out that Shiori shared several classes with his current conquest target. To be fair, Shiori had put up a good fight against the whole idea, but she was never very good at denying people. Especially not him.

Plopping into the seat next to her blonde housemate, she felt a tug in the corner of her mind. Apparently her inner turmoil had attracted the attention of the goddess residing within her.

''_Shiori"_ the childlike voice of Minerva piped up as she gave a mental hug to her host, _"Don't cry, Shiori, everythings all right now."_ Despite sounding dangerously close to waterworks herself.

The dark-haired bookworm couldn't help but smile at the sweetness of the diminutive goddess. Her earlier distress set aside, Shiori attempted to convince Minerva not to worry and that she was OK.

Moody went over the details of the day's class, explaining what and how the unforgivable curses worked. The entire time, Shiori was trying to work out how to introduce herself to the girl sitting next to her. Should she just introduce herself? Or maybe she should just pretend to need help with something. But what if that made her think she was annoying? Maybe if the professor assigned group work she could work with Luna and attempt to strike up a conversation.

"Now who should go first? Perhaps our resident truant?"

Shiori's train of thought promptly derailed and careened over the edge of a mental cliff. Trying to figure out what was going on, she went over in her mind what she could recall from the scary teacher's lecture. To her horror, Shiori finally realized that the professor wanted.

"Well? Hurry up, lass, I don't have all day. Front and center."

Feeling the blush creep back into her face, she timidly made her way to the front of the room steeling herself in preparation for the worst.

"What I am going to do will be rather simple. I will cast the imperius curse on you, which you will then try to resist. Am I clear?" Seeing the hesitant nod of affirmation, Moody waved his wand, "Imperio!"

'_Hop in circles while waving your arms over your head.'_ Shiori felt a different voice in her head telling her to do something absolutely ridiculous. While she felt compelled to follow it, Minerva's voice was stronger.

"_Don't worry, Shiori, the 'suggestion' in this curse is weak, I can prevent you from falling to it."_

Moody waited. And waited. Then he recasted the spell just in case. Then he waited. Eventually he was forced to admit that the girl was simply not affected or was just very good at resisting it. "Very well" he said rather irritatedly, "Next!" he yelled at the nervous looking Hufflepuff who moved up to take Shiori's place.

While the rest of the class was laughing at the antics their classmates were being forced to do, Shiori could only sigh in relief.

"Good work, it's amazing you were able to resist it so easily, I don't think I'd be able to do that." Luna whispered encouragingly to her once she found her seat.

Shiori flushed at the unexpected praise, "Th-thank you."

Luna soon struck up a rather one-sided conversation with the quiet girl and chatted about several odd things until she was called up.

Shiori, for the most part, did not know how to respond; half of the things the girl was telling her didn't make any sense! Still, at least she was talking to her which was a huge hurdle out of her way. Maybe this would be a bit easier than she imagined, Shiori prayed.

* * *

"What we know so far: Luna houses a loose soul, though it manifested only recently and sporadically."

Keima was holding a round table conference of sorts to go over what they knew about the target. It consisted of him, the two devil girls and Diana.

"Additionally," Haqua interjected, "the soul appears to be reasonably powerful, as it has not only manifested itself in its host, but is having a physical effect on its surroundings. This likely means that it has been there for quite a while, though how it has remained undetected for so long or why it is just now manifesting is unknown. Apparently our detectors will only activate if the loose soul's ability activates, otherwise they are undetectable."

"Right. As for the host, we don't know too much about her. I've asked Shiori to keep an eye on her, so I'll ask her for her input later." Though knowing the timid girl's tendencies, he wasn't expecting anything too in-depth just yet. "Virtually the whole school is in agreement that she is a bit of an oddity. Anything to add Haqua?"

The devil prodigy shook her head, "No, it's pretty much as you said. Even in our house she has no close friends, and while the other girls are not actively against her, they do act rather passive-aggressive around her.

"All we truly have are rumors and biased opinions about the girl. It would be unwise to make assumptions based on those." Diana chimed in.

"Kami-nii, why don't you just talk to her? She is quite friendly, you know." Elsea addressed her surrogate brother, whose brow was furrowed in thought.

Keima shook his head, "The parameters of the target are still unclear, I don't want to make a move until I know what sort of character she is. Besides, it is apparent that my house doesn't have the best reputation in this school, it would be odd to suddenly start associating with someone from another house."

"I agree. Acting hastily would not be prudent in this case. These loose souls are quite different from the ones you have encountered in Maijima. We have no idea how they will react to the host's emotions. What I am particularly curious about is 'why now?' The devil has stayed undetected long enough to grow that powerful, so why is it starting to manifest now? It seems like too much of a coincidence to me."

Haqua nodded in assent, "I thought that was strange too. I sent the chief a message; maybe she can fill us in on that."

"There is one other thing I cannot agree with. Katsuragi, you are planning on solving this with your usual method, are you not?" Seeing the nod from the brunette, she continued, "I cannot approve of such methods. They are indecent."

"Tch. Indecent my hagoromo. I bet I know the real reason you don't like Katsuragi's methods. Who's the indecent one now?" Haqua sneered.

The goddess blushed crimson, "What was that?" She snarled dangerously.

"You heard me."

The two rivals glared daggers at each other.

"Will you cut it out? Does this seem like the time or place for petty squabbles? Please try to act a bit more professionally," Keima had finally lost his temper with the whole affair and scolded the two arguing ladies harshly.

A lengthy pause fell over the group and the four sat there not speaking a word.

Eventually, Haqua broke the oppressive silence, "Well, there is no point in just sitting here and thinking about it. I'm going to go get dinner. Are you coming?"

Keima shook his head, "I'm going back to my dorm first. I need a new battery, the one I have now is about to die."

Haqua rolled her eyes, "Of course. How 'bout you Elsea? Diana?"

"I will be fine; besides, Tenri has some business to attend to own her own." Saying that Diana relinquished control over the body, the halo and wings fading from sight.

"I'll come!" Was Elsea's reply

Keima left the two to go about their business as he started the long trek back to his dorm.

Rummaging through his trunk for a spare battery, the bespectacled boy's eyes were drawn to the folded piece of parchment that lay on the stand next to his bed. Curious, he unfolded it, a slight frown forming as he read through it. Apparently the headmaster wanted to see him at around 8 tonight, which was in about 15 minutes. To be completely honest, he was expecting something of the sort and was surprised that it had not come sooner; he was quite prepared to deliver the ultimatum that he had been so used to giving at Maijima High.

Ten minutes later, Keima found himself in front of a hideous stone gargoyle. Reciting the password (sugar quills), he trod up the winding staircase leading to the headmaster's office. As he raised his hand to knock, a voice sounded from within:

"Come in, Mr. Katsuragi, I've been expecting you."

Keima entered one of the most peculiar rooms he had ever seen: multitudes of pictures lined the walls, their occupants peering curiously at him. Several strange, silver instruments lay scattered about. An exotic-looking, red bird perched in the corner of the room.

"Well then, feel free to have a seat Mr. Katsuragi." As he said this, he waved his wand, causing a stuffed, chintz armchair to appear. "Now, I believe I have received quite a few complaints from several of your professors. Apparently you refuse to follow along in class? May I ask why?"

"It is unnecessary. I am able to learn sufficiently well through the books alone. In fact, I believe that it would be far more efficient for me that way."

"Even so, the whole point of having a professor teach you is to refine your skills beyond what books can offer. By refusing to acknowledge your professors you run the risk of attaining only mediocrity. It would be a shame to squander any such potential; I believe it would be in your best interests to cooperate with them." Dumbledore reasoned.

"Well then" Keima began slowly, "If I am able to consistently attain outstanding marks on my work, there should be no issues, correct?"

Dumbledore studied the transfer student intently before breaking out in mirthful laughter. "Merlin, you are quite the interesting student! Very well, provided that you are able to retain outstanding scores on all of your exams and projects, you are free to do as you wish. I have some high expectations of you, Mr. Katsuragi, I am quite eager to see you meet them."

Keima bowed his head in acknowledgment, "Yes, sir. I will be sure to not disappoint."

Still chuckling, "I daresay Miss Granger will be seeing some fierce competition from now on." He paused before continuing, "I will have to tell my staff not to go easy on you, otherwise there would be no point to this little experiment."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Now, if you have nothing else to add Mr. Katsuragi..."

"Actually, sir, there is one other thing."

"Oh? Do go on."

"I was wondering if you knew anything about a Ravenclaw girl named Luna Lovegood?"

"Ah, Ms. Lovegood, yes I do know of her, quite a delightful girl. I had the pleasure of teaching her mother and father when they attended. Very nice people; Xenophilius was a bit odd I will admit, but Selene was a very bright girl."

"So would you mind telling me some things about her then, professor?"

"If you don't mind me asking, why would you like to know? It's not every day a student comes and asks me for details about a specific colleague."

"I find her interesting, professor. She is rather intriguing so I wanted to know more about her."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with mirth and he chuckled at the novelty of it all, young people usually were not so direct with these things. "Very well, though you understand I cannot tell you anything personal, as that is up to Ms. Lovegood herself to tell you if she deems fit."

"Of course, sir."

"Ms. Lovegood is certainly her parent's child, she is the spitting image of her mother but has inherited her father's love for the strange and fantastic." Dumbledore shook his sadly, "Unfortunately, I daresay that it is these very traits that have made the poor girl an outcast amongst her peers."

"Those creatures she talks about, nargles and whatnot, do they exist or not?"

Dumbledore smiled at the mention of the bizarre creatures. He had to admit, the concepts behind some of them were truly amusing. "They are not confirmed to exist, no. If I recall correctly, it was her mother who invented the concept of the, what did Selene call it? The crumple-horned-snorkack? I believe she did it to poke fun at the Care of Magical Creatures professor at the time. A rather stuffy gentleman, if memory serves and she did not find him all that amusing. The man would always get into an argument with her saying that such a creature was impossible while Selene maintained that she had seen them with her own eyes"

"Well, about Luna, sir." Keima had noticed that Dumbledore had begun to get off topic, and he attempted to steer the conversation back on track.

Dumbledore's brow creased just slightly, as if trying to remember something, "There truly is not much to tell. Miss Lovegood is quite adept at her studies; a very diligent girl. Aside from a few quirks and the fact that she has difficulty finding close friends, she is quite average." Dumbledore paused, then, "I believe the best course of action would be to talk to the girl herself, there is very little I can tell you without straying into personal matters. Besides, even I would find it somewhat taxing to recall every student at Hogwarts."

"I understand, sir." Keima said, managing to keep the disappointment from his voice. But, refusing to accept defeat so soon, he grilled Dumbledore for as much information as he could, making sure to stay away from topics that he wasn't likely to get answers on. Unfortunately, Keima was left with a scarce amount of progress by the time the old man decided to terminate their little chat.

"Oh my, is it that time already?" Dumbledore asked glancing at what appeared to be a clock, though it had far too many hands on it. "I am afraid I am going to have to send you off, Mr. Katsuragi, I have some preparations to take care of, the delegates from Beaxbatons and Durmstrang arrive in a just a few days after all."

Keima nodded, "Yes sir, thank you for your time. I will leave you to your work then." Exiting the office and walking down the spiraling staircase, Keima's mind was furiously trying to piece something together with the information he had.

* * *

The days preceding the arrival of the other two magical schools proved to be fruitless in terms of information gathering. Much to Keima's chagrin, the only information Shiori could provide about her fellow Ravenclaw was:

"She really likes animals."

Nothing that would prove all too helpful. At this point, he really had no choice but to wing it and ad-lib what he could with the limited information they had. Far from ideal, but he had no choice if he wanted to avoid having his head liberated from his body.

This was why, on the day of the delegations arrival, when most students were milling about on the grounds hoping to be the first to spot the other schools, Keima was searching amongst the masses for a certain platinum-blonde witch. He finally found her standing on the outskirts of the crowd. Like the others, she was searching fervently for a sign of the arrival. She paid particular attention to the skies, as if expecting them to rain in from the frosty heavens.

"Hello, Luna," he greeted.

"Oh, hello there Keima," she flashed him a distracted smile before returning her attention to the skies.

"It would appear that everyone is pretty excited about seeing these other schools."

"Of course! I hear that these other schools studying all kinds of different magic. Who knows what sort of things they can do!" She said dreamily. Then turning serious she added, "You know, they say that Durmstrang is actually a front for a secret werewolf militant group? They turn their top students and train them to fight. Daddy reckons they're planning on taking the ministry."

Keima didn't even bother asking who the dubious 'they' was. Any response he could have given was silenced by a delighted sound from the girl beside him. Glancing up to where she was looking, he saw an enormous carriage flying through the air, carried by equally enormous horses. As they touched down, the student's excited murmurs grew in pitch and frenzy.

Luna all but squealed in excitement as the horses slowed to a stop and they got their first good look at them. "They're beautiful," she breathed, eyes shining.

"You really do like animals, don't you?" Keima asked softly.

While he spoke, he watched a positively _massive_ woman stepped out of the carriage, followed by several shivering girls clad in light-blue, silk uniforms.

"Yep, when I was little mummy and daddy would always tell me about all sorts of fantastical creatures. Daddy still does; every summer we even set out on trips to find them! It's really fun you know. We haven't found anything yet, but daddy's convinced that it's only a matter of time."

"Just your father now? Your mother doesn't talk about them anymore?"

Luna appeared not to hear him, as she had shifted her attention at a nearby shout: "The lake!"

She gaped in delight and amazement as a derelict began to rise out of the depths of the lake. Tattered sails and half-rotted wood belied the functionality of the once magnificent craft. The ship docked at the shore and the students marched out single file. They were all dressed in heavy furs and all wore sullen expressions. An unpleasant-looking man with yellowing teeth walked up to their elderly headmaster and greeted him with a handshake and an artificial smile.

Keima registered the mutters that erupted around him directed at a stocky, well-built student that stood beside the Durmstrang headmaster.

"It's him"

"Krum"

"No way, _The_ Viktor Krum?"

"Who is he?" he asked Luna, "He seems rather famous."

"Oh, I believe he is some sort of famous quidditch player. Be careful, he may be a candidate."

"A…candidate?"

"Yes, do you see any abnormal fur on him? Claws? Does anything about him strike you as particularly 'wolfish?'" She spoke rapidly.

Oh, so she was talking about that theory again. While Keima really only believed half the things that the strange witch said, he decided it wouldn't be good to accidently anger her. At the same time, if he agreed to readily she may think he was patronizing her. So he picked the middle ground, dryly saying, "Well they _all_ look rather furry, what with the winter wear and all."

She nodded seriously, "That _is_ true. You don't think they're all werewolves, do you?" Her wide eyes widened further, "Oh my, you don't think they'd try and take over Hogwarts, do you?"

Keima was now stuck with the task of trying to unconvince a thoroughly convinced Luna Lovegood that the Durmstrang delegates were not actually an experienced hit squad dead set on taking over the school and becoming the top educational facility in all of Europe.

"The Magic School of the Year award is quite a prestigious thing" she had said seriously, "I wouldn't be surprised if they went all-out here."

"Does that award even exist?"

"Daddy says it does. He talks about it quite often."

And so it went, Luna firing out random 'facts' and Keima trying to figure out just how he was supposed to respond. Though at this point it was less that he didn't want to accidently alienate her and more that he didn't have a damn clue what she was talking about. Inevitably, the show ended and the collective schools made their way into the castle out of the biting cold. Keima was about to wander off to his house's table in the Great Hall when he felt a tug on his sleeve.

"Keima" Luna said.

He stopped and turned to her, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"It was really fun talking to you. You see, I don't usually have a chance to talk with people and have them talk back. Well, civilly at least. Thank you."

'_Lucky'_ Keima thought, _'It appears that I've managed to trigger a flag after all. Now to set up an event._

"You don't have to thank me; I had a lot of fun too." He paused, remembering something he had seen posted on a bulletin board earlier. "You know, I noticed that there's a Hogsmeade trip next weekend. Do you want to maybe go with me and we can stop for some coffee or something."

She cocked her head to the side curiously, "Coffee? But we can have the house elves make coffee. Did you know if you tickle the pear on the picture of the bowl of fruit you can find the kitchens? I've never actually been there before but I hear it's amazing. All the house elves are cooking and working and-"

"What I meant," Keima said desperate to stop her before she went on another off-track ramble, "is do you want to hang out together, as friends?"

"Oh. _Oh._" Her eyes widened as she finally realized what he meant, "Yes, I would like that very much. Yes, let's do that." She said dazedly.

"Great, then I'll meet you there next weekend then."

"Yes. Yes, next weekend. That sounds nice, let's do that." Luna showed no signs over recovering any time soon.

"Right, well then I'll see you later Luna, bye." He strode off to his table, planning to have dinner in peace then head back to the library to figure something out. He had made a lucky breakthrough, but it would be useless unless he followed up.

Unfortunately, his plans for a peaceful dinner were shot down as a certain snobbish, Slytherin came to heckle him. The two had been at odds since the very first day. The boy, with his slicked back, blonde hair had sauntered up to him, introduced himself as 'Draco Malfoy,' and proceeded to let him know just why he was better than a stupid _foreigner_ like himself. All of which Keima completely ignored, something that didn't sit too well with Malfoy.

"Katsuragi," he sneered, doing a rather decent imitation of their head of house, "What're you doing getting all cozy with that Lovegood? She's completely loonie you know, and she comes from a family of blood-traitors as well. Then again I don't suppose you care very much, do you? I'm sure you _foreigners_ will take whatever it is you can get even if th-" Draco was cut off as a spoon flew spinning at the side of his head. "Ow! Who threw that?" Rounding in the direction of where the utensil was thrown, he saw a thick-looking student staring stupidly at him. "Goyle! Was that you?"

"Uh-uh…"

"Ow!" Another utensil had struck the haughty boy, this time hitting the back of his head. "Stop it! OW!" Another, a fork this time, struck his arm. Furiously, Draco whirled about but could not see anyone with their wand out.

Shooting a glance at his fellow transfer at the far end of the Slytherin table, Keima saw Tsukiyo calmly eating her dinner as if nothing unusual had happened. However, he noticed that her normally bright blonde hair sat a few shades shy of a sunny orange color and that a rare, smug smile had adorned her lips.

The assortment of knives, forks, spoons and even chopsticks harassed the furious Slytherin boy as he fled the Great Hall bellowing, roars of laughter following him out the door.

Even Keima couldn't help but smirk; today had been a surprisingly successful day.

* * *

**Wooo so I'm pretty certain this is the longest chapter I've written to date, so yay me. I've pretty much got the end of the arc written out already so all that's left is the filler stuff in between the beginning and the end. Aka: most of the story :P**

**But no worries, I've got it mostly planned out. I think.**


	6. Flag 6: Romancing the Moon Pt 2

**Here's chapter 6 ^_^. I'm planning on wrapping this arc up in the next chapter then having a chapter on two not focused on a conquest before heading into the next arc. Kinda like how the anime is set up. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Flag 6: Romancing the Moon Pt. 2

The week preceding Keima's date with the Ravenclaw oddity passed uneventfully enough. There had been some uproar, something about the 'Triwizard thingy' he had been hearing about. It was all his housemates talked for a while, speculating on how Harry Potter had managed to enter his name into the goblet. To be completely honest, Keima didn't care. He was only glad that the hostility from his housemates had been redirected. It allowed him to focus on more important things, though to his disgruntlement and the surprise of others, these 'important things' didn't include his video games.

The Slytherin house had seen a marked change in the male transfer. In the brief time that they had (reluctantly) gotten to know him, they had found him to be someone heavily disconnected from reality. He willingly chose to forgo human interaction in favor of the strange, muggle device he always seemed to have with him. This caused even the kindest of Slytherins to form a quick dislike towards him while the more malicious ones took to hiding his things. Specifically the machines he was so fond of. Several people had heard of the ruckus the Japanese transfer had created on the train, and were hoping to reproduce it. They were sorely disappointed, as Katsuragi seemed to have a near-inexhaustible supply of the damned things.

Now, however, the boy had given up his games in favor of a pad of paper and a pen. At any given hour of the day, they would find him furiously scribbling something in the notebook or scratching out several lines, furiously muttering to himself.

Draco Malfoy, as usual, was the first to actually voice the curiosity of his housemates. "Katsuragi" he had sneered "finally given up on those muggle toys of yours? Finally decided to act like a proper Slytherin, have you?"

The lack of response only served to irritate the proud boy.

"That looks pretty important" he drawled before snatching an errant sheet of paper "What could _you_ possibly be working so hard on?"

This time Keima did reply. "You can keep that one, it's a failure anyway. Maybe it would help you in the future or something." He sighed uncaringly as he dully scratched out a freshly written line, muttering, "Dammit, not that kind of character. That sounds stupid."

Draco fumed at this. Was this foreigner making fun of him? "_Help_ me? How could this possibly help me?" He threw the paper back at Katsuragi in disgust. "It's written in _foreign_. Keep it, Katsuragi, you're nothing more than a waste of my time," he stalked off, still rather pink in the face.

Keima briefly peered at the retreating blonde before diving back into his work. He had another blonde to worry about, and he was sure this one wouldn't be so easily handled.

* * *

The date went as well as Keima could hope. Though he had suggested they get coffee, what actually happened was that he was forced to comply with her seemingly random whims. As a result, they had spent the day running around to various places in Hogsmeade leaving a beaming Luna and a fairly disgruntled Keima.

When they finally sat down at Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shop (at Keima's insistence) he took the opportunity to try and get to know the girl across from him.

It was surprisingly easy to turn the subject to school and her everyday life. Keeping it there was another matter entirely. It seemed Luna was prone to wandering off on random tangents. Despite being forced to steer the conversation back on track every time she went off, Keima finally managed to get the whole picture. He had a sneaking suspicion that the gap in her heart was caused by her isolation from everyone else, so he focused their talk on her interactions with others. The way she nonchalantly spoke about such things truly surprised Keima. Usually people were much more hesitant to talk about things like this.

He pressed her, "But don't you think you'd get along better with other people if you acted just a bit more...subtly? If you want I really don't mind helping you get along with others."

She eyed him as if he said something rather bizarre. "I don't really mind what other people say about me. I do the things I like because they're fun, not because people want me to do them."

"But there's no way what they say doesn't make you feel bad at all," he insisted. "I truly don't mind helping you, It's no problem at all."

She giggled, "You sound like that strange man daddy insisted I see a couple years back. He made me sit in this big fluffy chair and was always asking me about my problems and how I was feeling. He was nice, I suppose, but it was really weird talking to him because we were always talking about me and my feelings."

"..."

"It was really weird though! don't you think when people have a conversation they should talk about each other equally? It really is no fun when one person is just talking about the other the entire time."'

"Luna" he interrupted softly, "Do you want to try it? My idea I mean."

"But it really doesn't matter..." she trailed off before sighing. "Well" she conceded, "It seems like an interesting experiment, I guess I can give it a try."

She had said that, but she didn't seem at all receptive to what he was telling her. For a week he tried to tutor her in basic human interactions (something he learned from dating-sims), but no matter what he said it never seemed to stick. Her normal conversations quickly turned towards the weird and unbelievable regardless of the topic. It wasn't as if she didn't understand what he taught her, she just seemed to reject it, and eventually he was forced to scrap this idea. Luckily, a different opportunity showed itself around the same time.

Keima and Luna walked out of Charms class when a sudden noise exploded from behind the door the pair was passing by.

_BANG_

Curious, Keima peeked into the room.

"Mr. Finnigan" Professor McGonagall was saying with a harassed look on her face "I asked you to vanish these books, how on earth did you make them explode? I'm not entirely sure that outcome was even possible."

The Irish student gave a sheepish grin as the class roared in laughter.

"Hn, nothing important, Finnigan just managed to-" He turned to Luna only to find that she had not moved at all. She seemed frozen, rooted to the spot. Her pale complexion now rivaled the school ghosts' and her face was twisted into a grimace.

"Luna? Luna, are you alright?" He moved to touch her shoulder but quickly withdrew his hand when she jerked back to life.

"Oh. Oh yes. Yes, I'm fine, I just spaced out for a while there." She gave a shaky, unconvincing smile. "Shall we go then?"

Keima quirked an eyebrow, but chose not to pursue the topic, Luna didn't seem like she wanted to talk. The pair made their way to the grounds in silence. The weather had not yet given way to snow, but it was frosty enough for their breath to appear in the air.

Luna broke the silence, "I suppose you want to know what happened back there?"

Keima felt his pulse spike in excitement, if he could properly maneuver this flag, he could create an opening. Keeping his voice level, he shrugged, "To be honest, I am curious. But if you don't want to talk about it then I can understand." Internally he was begging for her to take the bait. He nearly crowed out loud when she did.

"Well, I was just remembering something that happened years ago." She began hesitantly.

Keima waited patiently for her to continue, but since she seemed lost in thought, he prompted, "Accident?"

She nodded. Her voice had recovered its usual dreamy lisp, "You see, my mother liked to experiment very much with spells and potions and whatnot. I always found it terribly interesting to see what sort of things she could make happen." She paused, "She really loved her experiments, but one day a spell she had been working on went very wrong. I wasn't with her at the time, but I heard the explosion and came to see what it was." She paused again, for longer this time, then, "She died. I was nine at the time. I was horribly sad for a while after."

Keima said quietly, "And the explosion just now reminded you of that?"

She chuckled slightly, "I don't usually act like that around loud noises; I was just a bit preoccupied today." She suddenly sprung up from her sitting position, "Well, no use moping out the past! You said you would help me catch wrackspurts today! Let's go!" She seemed to be completely recovered. Grabbing the sleeve of Keima's coat she dragged him in the direction of the quidditch pitch.

"Gah" he gasped as he was jerked roughly; she was a lot stronger than she looked. "Ok, but why the quidditch pitch?"

"Because it's isolated," she said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Not just the quidditch pitch though" she added "hidden-corners, empty classrooms, secret rooms behind tapestries, and other places too."

"Aren't wrackspurts the ones that fly in people's ears and muddle their brains? Why are we going to isolated places then?"

She nodded, "Because wrackspurts like to infest couples. Especially when they're doing…couple…things," she flushed slightly at that "and couples are usually in places like this."

Keima paled then flushed as well when he realized what they were about to do. They were about to seriously piss off some of Hogwart's couples.

"Well, let's get to it then!" She had produced two pairs of nets and strange goggles-'spectrespecs' she proclaimed proudly-from nowhere.

Someone, anyone, save him.

* * *

The whole 'Luna' situation finally came to a head a week before the first task. In that span of time, Keima had been noticing some troubling things. Luna had been acting oddly around him-more so than usual. She seemed so terribly distant all of a sudden; whenever their eyes met she would quickly avert her gaze. It seemed as if she was avoiding him. This worried Keima to no end. He had hoped that the conversation they had earlier would help Luna open up to him, but it seemed to only push her farther into herself.

Eventually, Keima had enough and confronted her. One afternoon, as they walked to Transfigurations in silence, Keima spoke, "Luna, did I do something wrong? You've been distracted lately, it worries me a bit."

"Hmm? Oh, no, you haven't done anything, I've just been thinking about a lot of things."

Unsatisfied with such a half-baked response, he pressed on, "Are you sure nothing's wrong? I don't mind talking about it. Did someone say something to you?"

The blonde girl actually frowned at that, "Keima, I've already told you many times, I'm not at all bothered by what everyone else is saying about me. I'm not sure why you are so fixated on something like that."

He internally sighed, this was getting nowhere. He couldn't _do_ anything if the girl refused to acknowledge the issue.

"Come off it, Luna, there's no way that sort of talk doesn't bother you. Why can't you just talk to me?" His common sense was telling him that pushing it was a bad idea, but his frustration was finally getting the better of him. He had no plan whatsoever! The parameters for Luna were just too vague for him to get a firm grasp on what it was she truly wanted. He needed something.

"Is that how you see it?" Luna muttered disappointedly. Before he could respond she continued, "Keima, theres something I want to confirm. This weekend, could you come with me somewhere? I would like to show you something."

He narrowed his eyes slightly. He was confused. As far as a romantic interest was concerned, he was sure that he had made very little progress. So why was she setting up events now? It made no sense. "I suppose I can" he said warily, "but what is it exactly?"

She grinned her mysterious grin, "You'll see."

When the promised day finally arrived, Keima's curiosity had been sufficiently piqued. Meeting Luna at the entryway of the castle shortly after dinner, he asked, "So what is this about exactly?"

"Daddy told me something interesting about the tournament, he said they should be arriving today."

Keima could barely suppress a groan. In the time that he had gotten to know Luna, he had found that most of the things her father told her were, pardon his French, complete bullshit. And why was everyone so obsessed with a troublesome thing like the tournament?

"Luna, are you sure about this? You know we could get in a lot of trouble for leaving the castle at this time of night. This sounds like a really bad idea"_ Especially since this is probably a wild-goose-chase, _he added mentally.

"So just don't get caught, silly." Saying this she took his hand, waltzed out the door, and started across the grounds.

Keima couldn't help but be mesmerized by the girl. Her platinum-blonde locks danced freely under the moonlight as she darted across the grounds. She seemed almost ethereal. Like a real princess of the moon.

"Hurry, Keima, I want to catch them before they finish!" She shouted joyously over her shoulder. Her whole body seemed to thrum with energy, much like an overexcited child.

"Finish what?" he yelled back, already out of breath. Seeing that she had ignored his last question he rolled his eyes and followed her.

The girl stopped at the edge of the forest. When her out-of-breath companion finally caught up, she motioned into the forest. "Well let's go then."

The two walked through the forest for several minutes, and as they got deeper and deeper in, Keima couldn't help but feel more and more uncomfortable with the whole ordeal.

"We're almost there" Luna whispered "I think."

Despite his misgivings, it would appear that Luna had been right. Keima could hear strange growling noises, but he could barely make out the large shapes in the darkness until a flare of light and heat revealed the scene to him. Dear God...

"Yay!" Luna let out a barely muffled squeal of delight. "Daddy was right! they're here! C'mon Keima I wanna get a closer look!"

"Luna" he started faintly, "are those...?"

"Dragons! Yea, come on Keima! Let's go!" She dragged the shellshocked boy behind her.

"They're so beautiful..." She gushed, eyes shining.

The flickering flames caused the shadows to dance about the clearing. At the far end, Keima saw some panicked wizards attempting to subdue the beast that was emitting the fiery plumes. At their end, the dragons had already been chained and caged. Aside from snorting restlessly, they seemed to have given up the desire to fight. In fact, they seemed to be asleep.

Suddenly, the ferocious, green, spiky dragon flicked an eye open. It dilated before focusing on the small Ravenclaw girl that was staring up at it enraptured. The horntail emitted a deep rumble from its throat, its eye never leaving the girl.

Luna paused, as if listening to it, then let out a delighted 'Oh!' before crawling forward.

"Luna? What are you doing? Luna!"

She ignored him, fixated on the large, emerald animal in front of her.

Reluctantly, Keima shimmied forward slowly, trying to reach the girl's hand. Just a bit more...he stopped in his tracks as the dragon's rumble became a growl. It stopped when it realized the boy would come no closer.

"Luna!" he hissed, "Luna, come back!"

Luna ignored all this. She was now within arm's reach of the dragon, but as she raised her hand to pet it on the snout, she felt a hard tug and nearly fell on her back.

Deciding it was now or never, Keima had darted forward and grasped her wrist before roughly dragging her into a sprint, the dragon's bellow of surprise and anger resounding behind them.

This time, Keima was the one pulling Luna by the hand as he rushed headlong in (what he hoped) was the direction out of the woods. After several minutes of running, he was relieved to see the glittering surface of the Great Lake and he slowed to a brisk walk. All the while he neither looked nor spoke to the pale girl behind him.

He couldn't take it anymore. The girl he was leading by the arm like a child was a complete mystery to him. He didn't know what she thought, he didn't understand why she did the things she did, He didn't understand _her. _A month on a single conquest and he was still just as lost as when he had started! When this depressing thought came to his mind, the frustration loosened his tongue.

As they finally reached the edge of the lake he exploded, "Are you insane?! It could have killed you!"

She seemed genuinely surprised by his outburst, "I knew he wouldn't, why are you so worried?"

"Worried? Worried doesn't even describe the way I'm feeling right now! Can you please _think_ before you do something as utterly insane as that?"

She pouted, "I said, I knew he wouldn't." Seeing the look of disbelief on his face, she elaborated, "He told me he wouldn't hurt me, so I thought it would be good to go up and get a closer look."

_That _was what assured her? Even if she could somehow understand the dragon, there was no reason she should _believe_ what it said. "Luna. You can't talk with dragons. I didn't mind your silly theories before, but if it's going to get you killed then I'm going to have to draw the line there." The moment he said it, Keima knew he royally screwed up.

For a while the two stood in silence. The full moon shone down on the pair, its light painfully bright in the otherwise dark forest. Where the light caught the rolling waves of the lake, it reflected beautiful, iridescent rays onto the surroundings. _'Such a wondrous setting'_ Keima thought, '_So why was the atmosphere so _wrong_?"_

Finally, Luna broke the silence. Standing at the edge of the lake with the moon at her back, she turned to face him. She smiled a heartbroken smile. "So that's how it truly is. I should have listened to her then. I had hoped…" She shook her head. "No, even that was a lie I suppose."

Keima became aware of a distinctive growling noise. His face paled as he saw something begin to form at the edge of the lake. Something big.

"The hell…?"

"It's a dabberblimp" she said dismissively. "Oh, but you don't believe in those do you?" her words held a bitter sting. As she said this, the creature materialized fully.

Keima was simply lost for words as the monstrous animal loomed over him. It sported a rotund, leathery body that ended in a ragged fish tale. The face looked vaguely human, save for the large tusks that protruded from the top of its mouth and the beady, little eyes perched atop its head. It easily pulled itself out of the lake with six deceptively emaciated appendages. The creature looked like some ungodly amalgamation of a horribly obese walrus and a merman, with far too many arms thrown in for good measure.

"Go." A single word and a gesture towards the stunned boy.

The dabberblimp responded to the girl's words, pulling itself along the land much faster than Keima would have thought possible for a sea-dwelling beast. Much faster than he could run, that was for sure.

"Luna! Why are you doing this? Call it off! Quickly" He yelled desperately, stumbling and slipping on the marshy beach.

It was too late. The beast leapt at him, snarling ferociously. Keima shut his eyes, ready to be crushed under the massive creature. When seconds passed and nothing happened, he cautiously cracked his eyes open. It was gone. In front of him stood the two devil girls, Elsea and Haqua.

"Katsuragi, what the hell did you do?!" Haqua yelled at him over her shoulder. Her arm was extended and holding her Scythe of Testament, which she had used to slay the beast.

Seeing his look of confusion, Elsea supplied, "Both of our spirit detectors went off really loud all the way from the castle, so we came to find you. We were afraid something had happened."

Haqua addressed the girl in front of them, "Luna, was it? Look, we don't want to have to fight you. Just calm down and talk to us."

She stared mournfully at them, her wide eyes seemed to glisten with tears, "You never did listen to _me_ did you Keima?" She addressed the brunette boy directly, completely ignoring the other two. "It was always so fun to talk to you that I thought, maybe, just maybe, you would understand it too." She shook her head bitterly, "But that wasn't it, was it? From the start what you were aiming for was something else? All that time, I thought you genuinely cared, but that wasn't it."

"What is 'it,' then?" he shouted back desperately. "What did you want me to understand? Explain it to me so that I can figure it out! Talk to me like I've been asking you to all this time!"

"I _have_ been talking to you!" She retorted shrilly. "Every time! You just never heard it! You just weren't listening!"

Haqua shook her head grimly, "It's no use, Katsuragi. The spirit, it's influencing her. You can't do anything." As an afterthought she added, "It's strange though, at this point it should have enough power to completely overwhelm her, but she seems to have kept some amount of control. Not enough though."

"I don't know how you found out about it, Keima, but what you were looking at all this time was 'that' wasn't it?" Luna muttered bitterly, "This thing inside of me?"

Well, this was new. "What do you mean 'that' thing?" He asked cautiously. There was no way she could have found out, could she?

"Don't play dumb!" She snarled uncharacteristically. "This thing that sits in my head! It never spoke to me before, but now it won't. Shut. Up." Her usually dreaminess was completely gone at this point, taken over by a desperate anger.

"The more I spent time with you, the more it spoke to me. I thought I was going mad, you know. But that couldn't be right, because I _knew _what I was doing. I could remember everything. So I wasn't a Loooonie like they say." She still warbled the 'Looonie.'

"Kami-nii" Elsea whispered urgently, "the gap in her heart is widening really fast; if you don't do something it will be very bad!"

"This isn't easy on her mind either, fighting the loose soul must be creating some incredibly strain."

"You know, she told me to stay away from you, that interacting with you would only make me sad, but I decided to ignore her." She muttered with a manic expression. "I wanted to trust you, you see."

Luna no longer seemed to be talking to them; instead she seemed to be muttering more to herself, as if reassuring herself about something.

"But you know, she was right after all! You didn't understand it! I should have listened to her." The more she spoke, the less agitated she became, and the less her voice sounded like 'Luna Lovegood' and more like something else. "She says she can take the pain away now."

A dark miasma began to form an aura around the girl, and when she looked up again tears dripped from her eyes, and a pained look etched itself onto her face. "I'm sorry, Keima. Please don't think too badly of me for this. I…I just want to forget everything now."

In a single cacophony of noise, both Elsea's and Haqua's spirit detectors went berserk. Before any of them could react, creatures began to materialize. All sorts of fantastical beasts shimmered into existence at an alarming rate, growling at the three heretics who dared upset their queen.

In no time, they were surrounded. Keima grimaced, what was with this ability? Too damn unbalanced; whoever was responsible for this really needed to be taught about game mechanics. A seriously overpowered enemy was just far too frustrating.

"Katsuragi, if you have a plan, now would be an amazing time to tell us." Haqua yelled whipping her blade quickly to the side, and bisecting a small, impish creature that had strayed too close. It gave a brief whine before poofing out of existence.

"Kami-nii! Help!" It was all Elsea could do to ward off the beast's advance with her hagoromo.

Keima's mind churned furiously; they couldn't hold them off forever. Haqua was powerful, yes, but eventually would tire out, and Elsea was…Elsea. On the other hand, the soul that had possessed Luna showed no sign of exhaustion, despite continuously spawning more and more creatures. He flinched slightly at the wave of heat that washed over him as Haqua cut down a heliopath.

The advance of the creatures halted momentarily, they warily circled the trio, searching for an opening. Keima took advantage of the brief lull to think. He was missing something; he could feel it. But what? Luna had made it clear that she couldn't care less about how everyone saw her, so what was creating the gap in her soul? Why had she suddenly lured them here only to turn on them? What was he missing?

It clicked. The creatures. Luna. Her stories. They all formed a picture much larger than the one he had been looking at. The old man had told him something; something that he had brushed off at the time but now made everything stupidly clear. He cursed to himself. He truly should have seen the pieces much sooner. Straightening from his crouched postion, "Haqua, Elsea, I need you to clear a path for me. Can you do it?"

The tone of his voice brought hope to the girls, so he did have a plan after all. "Not like we have much of a choice" she grunted "Elsea lets go!" The two girls charged forward, Haqua mercilessly cutting down any creature in her path while Elsea protected both of them from errant blows.

Keima pushed his glasses up, and then sprinted with all of his might through the temporary path the girls had cleared for him. He sprinted to their only salvation, his mind already formulating the words that he would say to Luna when he reached her. This was their only chance. If he messed up or if he was wrong….No. He couldn't think about that now, he had to focus.

"I can see it" he muttered to no one in particular, "I can see the ending!"


	7. Flag 7: Romancing the Moon Conclusion

**Well fuck all kinds of duck. I literally just finished writing this right before I read this week's chapter of twgok and found out that the girls don't necessarily all know each other. I just hope this stays as a small inconsistency and doesn't grow into something painfully huge. In either case I'm leaving things as is, rewriting this stuff for something like this is just not something I can make happen.**

**I've also Just realized I've never actually included a disclaimer for this story. Seeing as disclaimers are pretty much rites of passage for all fanfiction, here is mine.**

**I don't own Harry Potter or TWGOK. If I did Keima would be less of an insensitive asshole. But that's just my opinion.**

**There. Congratulations, my story, you are now a man…paper…word…thing.**

* * *

Flag 7: Romancing the Moon Conclusion

As a child, Luna lovegood adored her mother. She loved both her parents, of course, but her mother was someone whom she especially looked up to. She enjoyed hearing her talk about her experiments, even if she didn't always understand it; it always soothed her to hear her mother speak. The sparks and explosions from whatever her mother was experimenting with at the time was an entertaining bonus.

But what Luna especially loved was when her mother would tell stories about her beloved creatures. She listened, enthralled at the descriptions of slashkilters and nargles and wrackspurts. And especially the Snorkacks. Though the story that Selene told her daughter was sad and didn't properly end, Luna nevertheless loved the way her mother's eyes would sparkle whenever she spoke about the creature.

"But mama" The tousle-haired child would reply, "Mr. Snorkack sounds really lonely! Isn't that a bit sad?"

"Hmm" her mother would sigh whimsically, "I suppose that he would be. That's why, Luna dearest, when you find Mr. Snorkack, you have to be very nice to him. You can't tell him he doesn't exist like all the other mean people did." She had meant it as a joke, but Luna took it very seriously. Doubtless, Selene would have probably set her straight one day, but unfortunately she never saw that day.

The seasons were in a transitory state. It wasn't quite cold enough to be called winter just yet, but the winds had a harsh nip to them that denied it was fall. Luna had been playing in the small stream that ran past their yard, curiously scooping up the small critters that floated by, when she heard an explosion.

Curiously, the child walked around the house to her mother's workshop. Maybe she had something interesting going on today. What she found was a half destroyed wall and the workshop in complete disarray. Her mother had been lying on the ground with a fine layer of dust and soot covering her.

Luna, in her wonderful, childish naivete, hadn't fully comprehended what was happening. She crouched by her mother's side, "Hehe mama, you look silly. You have black stuff on your face and your hairs all messy."

Selene had cracked a small smile, "I suppose mama does look very silly, doesn't she? Where's your father?"

"Papa's in the house, I'll go get him! I bet he'll think you look funny too!" She had made to run off, but was stopped.

"Wait, Luna," Selene had grasped her daughter's hand and flinched in surprise when a golden thread of light sparked between them, skittering over Luna's skin. "Oh," She gasped softly, "so it worked after all, that's good."

Luna stared, fascinated at the dancing golden lights until they faded away. "Wow! What was that mama?"

"Just something mama's been working on for a while, dear." She had coughed, then said weakly, "Luna, dearest one, be good for daddy ok? Make sure he eats well and doesn't forget things, ok? He…" She was interrupted by shouting.

"Selene?! What was that? I heard a noise and…Dear Merlin…Selene!" Xenophilius dashed from the little rook house panickedly, and knelt by his fallen wife.

Despite her condition, the dying mother chuckled feebly at her husband's antics. "Xeno, take care of Luna, ok? I'm sorry, but it looks like I'm going to have to leave a bit early."

"Don't worry love, everything will be just fine! You just have to calm down and someone can go get help." He looked around wildly, but there was no one aside from them around. Whipping out his wand, he summoned a patronus which darted off in a silvery blur. "There, help will be here soon, so just stay calm alright?!"

"Dear, I think you're the one that needs calming down." In a much quieter voice, so not to worry Luna, she had added sadly, "It's over for me. I made a mistake and used too much energy. My magical core was sucked dry; there's nothing you can do anymore."

"Don't…don't say that!" He had begged frantically, "Those guys at Mungo's know all sorts of things, I'm sure they heal you. So please…" His voice faded out.

"Hnn, I'm so sleepy; I really want to take a rest now. It's gotten a bit chilly, so make sure to bundle Luna up so she doesn't catch a cold." Her half-lidded eyes no longer saw anything and her breathing had become shallow and irregular.

"Selene, no, don't do this, please…" The man could do nothing but watch as his wife's life faded away.

"I'm sorry, Xeno, but I've become really tired now." She had then addressed both of them, "I love you both so dearly. I'll see you later, ok?" Her eyes fluttered with those words before finally drooping shut for the final time.

"Mama, you can't sleep here, it's cold and dirty. We should go inside." Luna lightly shook her mother to no avail. "Papa, mama's not waking up, what should I do?"

Instead of answering her, Xenophilius grabbed his daughter in a rough embrace.

"Papa, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"Mama…won't wake up anymore, Luna." He had whispered emptily.

"No, that's not right, Mama's just tired! She said so herself!" Stubbornly, the girl had shaken the prone figure. When no response came, she shook harder, becoming more and more frantic.

"Mama wake up! Mama!" Luna repeatedly shrieked, while Xenophilius quietly sobbed in the background.

That night, Luna woke up screaming for her mother. And for the first time that night, her mother didn't come.

* * *

The day Luna had first felt the stirring in her soul was on her first trip to Diagon Alley. She was 11 and had gotten her acceptance letter into Hogwarts. They had stopped at the night prior to the Hogwart's Express' departure. Xenophilius, believing his daughter to be tucked securely in bed, went to have a drink with an old friend they had bumped into.

"Xenophilius, you know you can't keep indulging your daughter like this," the man had said exasperatedly after sloshing through several glasses. "I know these things are important to her and to you, but just think about what would happen to her when she starts school! She'll have a hard time getting along with kids her age if all she talks about those nonsense creatures."

"Yes, yes I know Rob," The white haired man said glumly, staring into his glass of firewhiskey. "But those creatures are so dear to Luna. They were her mother's inventions you see. I remember when she was still a child, the way her eyes would light up whenever Selene would talk about them. It's one of her precious memories. She's already lost her mother, I don't want to take away those memories away from her too. I just couldn't live with myself."

Rob snorted, "Tsk, Xenophilius, you need to pull yourself together! What happened to Selene was tragic, yes, but these things happen in that field of work. I'm sure she knew that too. It's been two years since and you're still the same as back then." He stopped to take a swig from his glass.

Rob sighed then continued in a gruff, gentler voice, "I'm sorry, Xenophilius, I know it's none of my business. Just remember, I'm not saying this just for your sake, but for Luna's as well. Just…just consider it, will you?" Smiling sadly, the man placed several coins on the counter before standing and clapping his friend on the shoulder. "Hang in there, alright?" Then he was gone.

Luna had left at that point; she had gone down for something to drink and had happened to overhear the conversation. Returning to her room with a heavy heart, she lay in the darkness for hours, her mind a whirlwind of thought. That was when she first heard the voice speaking to her. It had been quiet, less than a whisper, and fell silent quickly, so she ignored it.

And then _he_ showed up.

Though it had been years, Luna instantly recognized the voice that spoke to her. It had been the day of their first date, and she was quite worried because it seemed much louder now. Almost speaking level. _'Perhaps it will go away'_ She hoped in vain.

The voice grew and grew until it became impossible to ignore. Luna was under considerable duress, forced to filter between reality and her mind. As a result, she grew less focused and more distant. No one seemed to notice, save for _him. He_ was the only one who bothered asking what was wrong, and for that she was grateful. But at the same time she couldn't help but feel slight anger towards him. This was happening because of _him._

The voice didn't seem to like _him_ very much. But it didn't seem to like anything very much. It would often switch tones, from enticing to taunting to downright threatening. Luna didn't know just how much longer she would be able to take it.

And then, that night on the lake, she finally gave in.

* * *

-Present day, Present time-

Keima rushed through the waves of beast that now sought to converge on him. Every now and then he avoided a swipe of a claw or a lashing tail. Now, more than ever, he cursed his lack of physical fitness as he felt his chest constrict and his breathing become labored. His arms and legs burned ferociously, but he didn't dare stop. This was his only chance.

With a roar of desperation he leapt the last couple of feet up the slippery embankment before coming to a full stop in front of the stunned girl. His breathing was slightly heavy, but he had no time for reprieve. Briefly taking in her surprised expression, he assertively leaned forward and planted his lips firmly on hers.

Her lips were soft and supple and slightly salty from her tears. Keima had shut his eyes, but Luna's were wide open in shock. She sighed once before melting into the kiss. Her tense body relaxed and her eyes drooped shut as well.

Keima held the kiss for a couple seconds before gently pulling away. As he opened his eyes, he once again took in her tear-streaked face and dazed expression. Keima placed his forehead against hers, still gazing into those wide eyes. "Luna" he said quietly "You don't need these things to remember your mother."

The clearing stilled the moment he said those words. The beasts simply stopped, as if frozen in time.

Luna tried to avert her gaze, but Keima gently placed his hand on her cheek, and turned her head to face him once more."You know it too, right?" He took a breath; the next words would either doom them all or save them all. "They don't exist. None of them." They were still alive. That was a good sign.

"You tried to make them real as remembrance, but you know as well as I do that it's not necessary. You are your mother's daughter, Luna, you don't have to try this hard. She wouldn't want this either."

Luna didn't know what to think anymore. Just what was she supposed to do? Slumping to her knees in exhaustion, she wept. "But…hic…but they're mama's precious stories! I can't just forget them…hic…I…I just can't!"

"Who says you have to? There's no reason to forget them. Stories are fine, but this..." He waved his arm at the scene behind them. The beasts were still frozen in place while Haqua and Elsea stood back-to-back, staring warily at the creatures that surrounded them. "Don't you think this is a bit much?" He gave her a crooked smile, "Like I said you don't have to go this far."

She hiccupped and gave a watery laugh at this. "It really is sort of silly, isn't it?" She laughed a bit more then mumbled sadly, "I've done so much to you, caused you so much trouble, I'm so sorry."

"It…it wasn't much…ha…ha." In response to the dubious look he received, he added a bit more sincerely, "Really. It could have been much worse."

She giggled at this, then, "Well then, one last thing, Keima."

"What is it?"

"Kiss me again." She looked directly at him; the moon sparkled on the remnants of tears that lay on her face.

For a moment he looked surprised, but then he complied, kneeling and pressing his lips to hers once more.

A dark shape began to form around Luna and was wrenched out of her body, revealing a feathered female figure. Large, ragged wings sprouted from her back and her arms and legs ended in raptor-like claws. Reluctantly, the harpy was being dragged into the container along with her pets, the extensions of her soul.

To their surprise, the loose soul started cursing and screaming at them in heavily hellian-accented English. "No! You can't do this to me! I am the queen of beasts! I refuse to go like this." The shape snarled, already halfway in the containment canister. "Tear them to shreds my lovelies!" She shrieked.

Keima's blood froze and the frozen creatures suddenly jerked to life. Though a good number of them had already been sucked into the soul container, the beasts closest to the pair still made a desperate bid to attack them.

For the second time that night, Keima shut his eyes and prepared for imminent death. And for the second time that night, he cracked his eyes open when nothing happened. A cobweb of golden light flowed arched around the two, originating from Luna. An ethereal woman had suddenly appeared, her serene-looking face resembling the girl in his arms.

"Ma…ma…" Glancing down Keima noticed Luna was now unconscious, fresh tears leaking from the corners of her shut eyes.

The golden shade looked down softly on the sleeping girl, a gentle look gracing her face. She seemed to say something, but no sound emanated from her moving lips. Smiling a bit sadly, she gave what resembled a sigh, and then turned to the masses. A brilliant blast of golden light exploded from the shore, and when it finally died down, the creatures were gone, erased from existence. The shade was gone as well, and the lakeside had suddenly become eerily quiet, a disconcerting contrast to the earlier ruckus.

"A guardian spirit…" Haqua whispered when Keima rejoined them, carrying the unconscious Luna in his arms. "I never thought they actually existed."

"Haqua, you know what happened back there?"

"It's a form of magic that is very rarely seen. So rare that some devils doubt the phenomenon actually exists." her voice was still hushed. "It's the remnants of a human spirit that are bound to a live being."

"She said something, but I couldn't hear anything." Keima said dazedly.

Haqua shook her head in agreement, "It couldn't speak because it's not an actual soul bound to a body, but lingering emotions and powerful magic left as a protection. Judging by the form it had taken, her mother is the one who placed it on her. She must have truly been a genius at her craft."

The group trudged back to the castle in a contemplative silence. The moon was just about to make its exit and the first rays of sunlight began to peek over the horizon. It had been a really long night.

* * *

Luna cracked her eyes open to find sterile white walls and a brightly lit room. She was in the hospital wing, though she could not remember how or why she ended up there. An 'oh' of surprise caught her attention, and turning she noticed the person sitting in a chair by her bed. "Hello there."

"Oh, umm, hi. I'm Ginny Weasley"

It wouldn't have taken Luna long to figure that out; the flaming red hair that the Weasley siblings were notorious for was a dead giveaway. She nodded, "Hello there," she repeated "I'm Luna Lovegood." Then she frowned curiously. It was rare that she get visitors in the hospital. Well, it was rare that she was at the hospital in the first place, but that was beside the point. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you here? Are you here for someone else?" She craned her head to the left and right, but as far as she knew, she was the only patient in the room.

"Well, Professor McGonagall asked me to run some papers to Madame Pomfrey, and she asked me to watch over you while she looked those over. She said you'd be waking up around now." An awkward silence then fell upon the two. Partially out of curiosity but more to break the silence Ginny asked, "So why are you in here?"

"I'm not sure, I just woke up and I don't really know what's going on."

"Really? Didn't some friends stop by or something? Someone must have brought you here."

"I don't really have many friends" the blonde witch said cheerfully. "They call me Loooonie, you know. That's why I was so surprised to see someone sitting there"

"That's horrible! Why would they do something like that?"

Luna merely shrugged.

The two girls chatted amicably for a while until Luna started looking a bit fatigued, her already pale face turning a shade paler. Worriedly, Ginny said, "I probably should get Madame Pomfrey, she asked me to call her when you woke up."

As if on cue, the nurse strode out of her office, catching sight of the two girls. "Oh good, you're awake." Turning to Ginny, "Here you go, Miss Weasley, please return these to your head of house as swiftly as possible."

"Yes Madame Pomfrey." Turning and smiling at the bedridden blonde girl, "It was nice meeting you, Luna, let's hang out together sometime!" She was then shooed out by the strict nurse.

"Ok well let's check your temperature, shall we?"

As the nurse fussed over her, Luna couldn't help but feel that, despite being in the hospital wing, she felt much better than she had in a long time. She felt…lighter…somehow, as if a weight she had been carrying was now lifted.

"I daresay you must have given them quite a shock, fainting like that. It's nothing serious, mind you, just a mild case of fatigue, but do try to be careful."

Luna had been broken out of her reverie by the stern nurse. She looked confused for a second, "They?"

"Yes yes," Madame Pomfrey bustled impatiently "those transfers brought you here saying that you had fainted. Now, I know you have been sleeping for a while, but it wouldn't hurt to rest for a bit more." She handed Luna a vial of grey liquid, "Drink this."

Luna downed the vial then fell back on the sheets as a wave of drowsiness washed over her. _'The transfers, huh?'_ she mused as she was drawn deeper into sleep's embrace. For some reason she felt a rush of affection as she thought about a certain stoic, Japanese male. _'How odd, I don't even know him that well, but I feel like he's a very, very interesting person. I wonder why.'_ Vague memories of the new transfer tugged at the edges of her consciousness, but she was unable to grasp them. '_Well, maybe I'll remember next time.'_ Was her last thought before sleep overtook her completely.

* * *

**Well, that's that. Luna's arc is now officially over. What do you think? I really think this whole chapter's a bit underwhelming and am a bit disappointed, but I have no clue how to fix it. It's really quite frustrating. Well, anyways that's it for this chapter, slightly shorter than the previous ones, but stay tuned for more.**

**Oh and I have no idea whether or not Selene is her real name. I heard it was somewhere, but that might have just been from another fanfiction on the site or something. I'm terrible at remembering my sources, please don't sue me.**


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